Chiyochan and the Rise of the Destroyers
by X to the Zoltan
Summary: Complete. Colossally ill advised sequel to 'Osaka vs the Space Monster.' As ever, this is Azumanga Daioh with a dash of death and mayhem, but maybe a little darker this time 'round.
1. Comrades!

(A/N: I have no plan. All I have is a cast of OCs that sprang up around the Azugirls and a forest of sequel hooks, neither of which I'm keen on abandoning. So… huzzah! Let the thrashing and flailing begin!  
Oh, yes, and this chapter contains passing reference to 'Not New Years Dreams.' It's not dreadfully important that you've read it, but it'll explain a little of how Tomo acts.)

Osaka took the envelope, feeling already that it was laden with doom. Like a thin purple mist the doom wafted out, sprouting vicious little claws and scratching at her hand and wrist. "_I am full of doom!_" the envelope hissed. "_Fear me!_"

Of course, none of her classmates could see this phenomenon. All they saw was Osaka wandering back to her desk with a distant, glazed look in her eyes. She didn't mind that they were doubtless thinking of her as an airhead—they just had no idea what they were missing!

"_Within me is your future! Your fate! Your DOOM!_" Osaka yawned in response, unwittingly setting off a chain reaction through the whole classroom. Outside, the first swift, baking winds of summer rushed through Tokyo's streets, driving the petty concerns of school and work before it like a marauding army. Next to the glory and freedom summer vacation would bring, this nasty little envelope and its contents were mere trifles.

Not that her parents would agree…

"Mihama," Ms. Yukari droned. Chiyo rose to accept her envelope and thanked her politely, but before the words had even left her mouth, a shadow descended over the head of the classroom. "Oh, don't thank me yet!" Yukari chuckled with a demented, evil smile. Suddenly concerned, the tiny prodigy turned pink and rushed back to her seat.

_What're you so worried about? _Osaka wondered affectionately, _What, you gonna get a B in something this time? Oh, no!_

"Blueman." Yukari mutilated the foreign name's pronunciation and didn't give a darn. The new girl walked quickly to the front, sandy hair shaking rapidly with her stride. She accepted hers with both hands and a quick bow before scuttling back to her place. Osaka sympathized. It had been hard to avoid the limelight when she'd first arrived from Osaka; the plight of an American must be five times worse! Especially an American with those freaky eyes… but nobody else seemed to notice, so maybe it was just Osaka's overactive and overpaid imagination.

"Kagura." The athlete trudged forth as if this was her execution. You had to keep your grades up to stay in the athletic program after all, and academically, she brazenly walked the line. She never seemed to care until about a week before the progress reports, whereupon she'd spontaneously spring four ulcers and fall over dead. (In the figurative sense, of course.)

"Takino." As Tomo walked past Osaka, tossing the envelope from hand to hand like a hot potato, their eyes met significantly and the taller girl nodded. Osaka smiled. Judging from the Mussolini-worthy speech her envelope was delivering, it would be nice to have some support when she finally tore it open.

"_Nothing can save you! NOTHING!_"

* * *

Sanada was an absolute colossus. As he wandered through the curiously empty cafeteria, he could easily see over the milling heads of his classmates and zero in on his target. Though his height was imposing, his face was definitely not; his features were soft and friendly, with slightly asymmetrical eyes that gave him a permanently skeptical expression.

His first thought was to try and sit with Sakaki again, but a quick glance showed that it was not to be. Not only was the new American girl sitting with her, but also that scary little waif that hissed at him every time he neared or even mentioned her towering idol. Turning sharply about, his tray instead slapped down next to Kiyoshi's.

"See?" Kiyoshi laughed, "This guy _knows_ how to pick his friends!" The hyperactive boy raked a hand through his bleached hair and looked sharply back towards Sakaki. "Makin' another pass at Gigantor over there?"

"She's not…" Sanada started.

"Of course _you _wouldn't think so," the other rolled over him, "I still think you're wasting your time. She's a cold fish, dude."

"Maybe not," Kazuki commented from his place across the table. "Maybe she's just shy?"

"Shy?" Kiyoshi snorted. "Sakaki? What the hell reason does _she _have to be shy? She's got all the boys in our class swooning over her—and half the girls! She's probably the most bad-assed girl in Honshu!"

"Sometimes I think…" Kazuki trailed off, gazing towards the girls' table. It swiftly became apparent that he wasn't planning to finish the sentence. Used to this behavior, his friends moved on.

"Some people don't need a reason," Sanada explained. "Maybe I don't have a chance with her, but I'll bet she'll open to _someone_."

"Well, whatever. I can't deny she's hot. I mean, I'd do 'er."

Sanada's expression curdled. "Hey…"

"Oh, sorry. I guess your motives are _pure_, then?"

"You sure are an asshole sometimes," Kazuki tossed in, his tone as friendly as ever. "How do you ever get dates?"

Before the bleached boy could defend himself, Osaka happened by, looking around in sedate confusion. "Sakaki's over there," Sanada offered helpfully, "And I think the others are on the roof."

"Thanks," she said driftily. "Oh, an' Kazuki? _Diese Dummköpfe entdecken nie, über was wir sprechen!_"

Kazuki grinned. "_Es ist pathetisch, nicht ist es?_"

As she left, Sanada looked between them in confusion. "What was that about?"

"Ahh… foreign correspondence. Do'worry about it," Kazuki said dismissively, staring after her. "She looks different, don't you think? Ever since we went to Okinawa…"

"She sure does," Kiyoshi agreed, "And I think it's an improvement!"

"You see it, too?"

Sanada shook his head. "I'm pretty sure you guys're talking about two completely different things. You're not supposed to talk about things like that, Kiyoshi, honestly!"

"Hey! How do you know I'm…?"

"What else would_ you_ be noticing?"

Kiyoshi gave a twisted smile. "Touché."

* * *

Tomo and Osaka walked together in tense silence, unopened envelopes of doom clutched in their hands. It was still a beautiful day and summer vacation still beckoned, but theirs was a grim mission. The grades would soon stand revealed, and then they would know their fate.

"So I'm guessing if I don't pass everything, my pop'll stab a soldering iron into my eye and keel-haul me by it from this new boat he got," Tomo predicted lightly. "Either that or it'll just be the firing squad. Depends on his mood, I guess."

"If I fail anything, my parents'll prob'ly send me to a convent," Osaka said, deadly serious. There was a long, awkward pause before Tomo turned to her wide-eyed. "Gotcha." Osaka's voice didn't change and she didn't bother to laugh at her own joke, leaving the other even more uncomfortable.

"So anyway, we're both pretty much screwed, huh?"

Osaka shrugged. "It's been worse."

"Yeah… oh, shit!" They turned a corner to see the site of an accident, hemmed in by a trio of police cars. The officers spread out around the twined vehicles, doing all their… policey stuff. Another crouched next to one of the drivers, a young fellow, pale and shaking.

"Act natural!" Tomo whispered. The girls stood straight as boards, walking with exaggerated casualness, eyes steadfastly averted from any blue uniforms. They'd always been a little paranoid around the fuzz, and their recent adventures in _Grand Theft Auto: Tokyo_ did little to help.

"Why would they care? We've just been shooting digital cops!" Tomo had protested. "Then can't they shoot us with digital bullets?" Osaka had countered. Tomo wasn't certain if that quite made sense, but she wasn't inclined to risk it.

Fortunately, their destination was in sight. Casting a single nervous glance back at the horde of lawmen, Tomo and Osaka ducked into the park and made their way over the lush grass towards its center. After a tortuous walk, they were out of sight and Tomo heaved a deep sigh. "That was close!"

"Glad none o' them were psychic," Osaka added. "They'da seen in our heads and we'd've been done for!"

"We still are," Tomo reminded her, waving her envelope in the air. Doom's claws were flailing out of under its flaps, practically cutting Tomo's hand to ribbons, but she didn't even notice. "Let's get this over with."

Osaka steeled herself. "Right."

They tore open their envelopes and removed the folded report cards, standing side-by-side and holding them out at arm's length. After a moment of contemplating the papers' leering, blank faces, the friends joined hands and snapped their grade sheets open with a flick of their wrists.

First grade: Math. Both flinched back as if physically struck. "Uggh!" "Oooh!" Next grade: English. "Oww!" "Errk!" Next grade: Literature. Osaka stood straighter with an "Oh!" of pleasant surprise; she ended up holding Tomo off the ground when the other choked and went limp.

When they had seen the full extent of the damage, the fellow bonkuras sagged. "It's worse than I thought," Tomo moaned. "My parents are gonna kill me. They're gonna throw me to the wolves!"

"Me, too," Osaka sighed. "Wonder why I did so well in Literature, though? I usually just use it to sleep." Though, since the class was taught by Kimura, that mystery was probably better left unplumbed. _"For meritous effort?" What on God's Green Earth could _that_ mean?_

Looking down the line of miserable marks, Osaka had never felt the future bearing down on her quite so hard. Time thundered ahead with freight-train force, bearing her along to an unknowable and likely dreadful fate. It settled over her shoulders and chest, pressing the breath out of her. "This…" she said weakly. "I mean…"

"Well, at least I still have my infallible ninja technique," Tomo decided.

"Wha-?"

"Hii-yaa!" The wildcat idiot tackled her to the ground. A real ninja would have hung his head in shame if he saw the clumsy mayhem that was being attributed to his technique. Osaka and Tomo roughhoused gleefully and, for a few shining minutes, they were children again and the future's fang-filled maw was not yet preparing to snap shut on them.

Finally, they lay panting on the grass, the tops of their heads just touching, gazing up at the peaceful, friendly-looking clouds that scudded across the sky. "Why…?" Osaka spread her arms out and sighed. "I was honestly tryin' harder. I thought I'd've improved a _bit_…"

"What's the big deal?" Tomo asked. "So we'll get yelled at a little. So what?"

"It's not…" Osaka rolled to the side and curled up. "Like it was."

"Oh, c'mon. Don't _worry _so much! It never used to bother you before… you know, you've been acting funny lately, Osaka. In fact, I reckon it's been ever since you got back from that island of yours!"

"I… I have?"

"Yeah! What the hell _happened_ to you there?"

"It isn't…" the space cadet faltered. "That is…"

"C'mon!" Tomo wheedled, "You can tell me. What happened? You pushed me into the ocean--it was friggin' cold! I think I've earned at least this much! What went down?"

"I died," Osaka deadpanned. They lay in the grass for some time after, that wonderful summer breeze rushing over their still forms. Their shadows lengthened, the air cooled and eventually the silence grew unbearable. "Uhh… you're supposed to say 'gotcha,' aren't you?" Tomo finally ventured.

"My body fried, my mind fell apart and my soul flickered out," her friend pressed on remorselessly, "Ah died. An'… an' ah can't help but wonder…" she swallowed softly, "What… what if that was _it_? What if Mothra hadn't brought me back? What if… ah died a worthless, meaningless little wisp o' nothing?"

"You're… what?" Tomo sat up and half-turned towards her. "Osaka…"

"An'… an' someday it _will _happen. Ah'll die… and that'll be it. An' ah can't…" Osaka shook her head sharply, voice rising. "I can't do anything to make myself worth anything before then!"

None of their friends would have believed the pained look that filled Tomo's eyes. She instinctively knew it would be useless to logically point out that Osaka had, in fact, saved the world that day, so she tried a different tack. "You know…" she said slowly, hesitantly, "I've… felt the same way. About being worthless."

Osaka glanced up. "I remember; you had that nightmare an' freaked out?"

"Well…" Tomo fought the impulse to make something up to match her friend's wild experience, and for a wonder, she actually won. "Er, yeah. It's stupid, I know."

"Nah… dreams're as real as anything." Osaka sat up and faced her. "You've really…?"

Tomo shrugged uncomfortably, regretting her admission. "Guess so."

A cloud passed over the sun, throwing them into shadow. Osaka held out her hand, offering, "Y'know what? If we really feel the same way… about the future n' stuff… maybe we should… I dunno, face it together?"

Tomo took her hand. "All right! We can be comrades-in-arms! The… the anti-bonkuras! And besides, I won't feel like so much of a loser with you around…" They laughed, but the moment still had a certain solemnity. Osaka withdrew her hand and laid it over her heart, meaning to say something dramatic and/or mushy, but Tomo's eyes had followed her hand down.

"_Osaka!_" she gasped, "You… you traitor!"

"Huh? What did I-?"

And again the Takinator's masterful ninjitsu crashed down on her head.

* * *

Sandra sprawled across her modest apartment's couch, scribbling out the last few sentences of an English essay. Anybody seeing her there would never have guessed that she'd ridden with the vanguard of an alien invasion, and any of her old comrades would have had a hard time recognizing her. She was now entirely a creature of mystery, which appealed to her very much.

Whereas Xandra had been small and painfully thin, exposure to the varied and rich cuisine of Earth had filled Sandra out nicely, though only Tomo would have thought to call her chubby. Xandra's eyes had been somber and dark, much too large for her narrow face, but now a certain weight had been lifted from behind them, making Sandra seem at once younger and more mature. Xandra had been a bit of a wimp and a crybaby, while Sandra… well… huh.

Of course, when she'd moved to Earth, a change of pigmentation had been called for. Blonde hair, pale green eyes and a fair Caucasian complexion made every look into a mirror a strange experience. But when she turned her head just _so_, her eyes still shone copper in a way that was just as jarring to her fellow Xians as it was to Earthmen.

Folding the essay, she thought happily about the coming vacation and her invitation to Chiyo's summer home. She and Kaori were both coming for the first time; apparently, these trips were a tradition with Sakaki's circle of friends. With that to look forward to, how could she think about that psychopath Ms. Yukari and her boring assignments?

Suddenly, she heard a familiar voice outside. Sandra hurriedly set her schoolwork aside and listened carefully. Had she just imagined…? "Right, this is it." No! Breaking into a wide grin, Sandra took one step, threw the door open and was airborne before her visitor could say a word of greeting. "Xan—_oof!_" he grunted, catching her gracelessly.

"Bro-_theeeeeeer!_" she squealed, administering a bone-splintering hug. For it was indeed her brother, formerly the Keeper of Ghidora, now just plain Xagrid (odd—this is the first time his name's come up). He wore the standard Earthman makeup and sunglasses, along with a thoroughly non-descript outfit.

"Hey…" he set her down with his customary lack of tact. "How's it goin'?"

"Oh, it's just spectacular! Ms. Sakaki's been so good to me and her friend've taken me right in and the food around here is so great and it _rains! _I mean, clean water just _falls _from the _sky_ like it's no big deal and…" her brother waited in amused silence for a time as she continued to gush. "…then in a week or two we'll be going to her summer home to hang out and relax… oh, hi, Xoltan!"

The taller Xian had squeezed in behind Xagrid and stood there looking a little out of sorts. He'd donned a brown vest and beret along with a pair of flip-down sunglasses that he probably fondly imagined to be inconspicuous. She happened to know that he went by "Mr. Prefect" down here on Earth, though why he should get such a kick out of it, she couldn't guess. "Yo," he greeted awkwardly. "You, uh, you know you've been speaking Japanese this whole time, right?"

"Huh?"

"Don't worry about it," Xagrid clapped her shoulder. "I'm glad you're doing well."

Sandra groped for her native tongue. "But how are you guys? I mean… so much must've happened!"

"Nothing too exciting," her brother said quickly. "I mean, we still don't know where the Prince ended up, and the Earthmen made off with Mecha Ghidora's center head, and pretty soon we'll have to return to Planet X to find out what'll happen to us, but nothing you should really worry about."

"Oh…" in spite of his disclaimer, she certainly did look worried. "Do you think… do you think they'll…?"

"Ah, he's called the mad emperor for a reason," Xoltan waved her concern off, "I'm sure they'll understand. Oh yeah, Xagrid, did you bring the…?"

"Right, yeah…" the two of them weebled for a moment, then the former Keeper came up with a metallic briefcase. He set it on the floor before Sandra. "Someone else who wants to see you."

The case opened with a faint hiss and something smacked into Sandra's chest. She gasped in surprise and staggered back, trying to figure out what in the universe was raking a wet strip of sandpaper over her face. It took a moment for her panicked mind to equate the lashing tongue, buffeting wings and enthusiastically digging claws with an old friend.

"Xichsa!" she cried happily. "Uh… Xizzca?"

When the beast had finally calmed down, she offered her guests a place to sit and put some tea on for them. While she bustled about, wearing the dragon over her shoulder, the men conversed quietly in Xlish and she found to her chagrin that she had a hard time understanding them.

"Bloody excellent," Xoltan said upon receiving his tea, leaning back and crossing his legs. After thanking her, though, he looked away uneasily and let her brother carry the burden of conversation, which he did with increasing reserve.

"Well, Xond twisted our arms," Xagrid said apologetically after a time. "We have to ask if you've told anyone where you're from."

"No. Well, Sakaki knows, of course. And one of her friends suspects something, I think. This weird girl that stares at you with these big, creepy eyes and smiles like she knows something you don't…"

Xoltan looked to the ceiling. "That doesn't sound like _anyone_ we know."

Sandra smiled ruefully. "Yeah, she could be my sister." She paused, looking thunderstruck. Before the others could comment, though, the subject changed on them. "You're kinda sluggish. What's wrong, guys?" she asked. "Rocket-lagged?"

Xoltan pounced on the out. "Yes, as a matter of…"

"No, we'd better tell her. Listen, Xan…" Xagrid was not the sort that often felt remorseful, and didn't wear the expression very well. "We… when we go back, we may never return to Earth. It's, uh… we're going tomorrow, so this could be… the last time you see us."

Instead of wigging out like they'd expected, Sandra just nodded sadly. She'd expected as much. "Well," she said, fighting down the flood of tears that threatened, "Good luck, I guess…"

"Yeah," he replied, similarly assailed. "You, too. We should probably… I don't want to, but we should probably go soon. Xoltan?"

"Uh? Oh. Yeah." He rose quickly and straightened his vest. "S-sorry."

Sandra hated when painful subjects came up so suddenly. "No, it's fine. You've gotta, I understand." Xagrid hugged her, ignoring the dragon's determined ear-biting. Xoltan hugged her, retreating when the animal latched onto his forehead. Impulsively, she kissed his cheek, which made him jump while both her brother and the dragon stared daggers at him.

Finally, she held her pet out at arm's length, trying fiercely to remember its name. At long last, it came to her: Xozzinidschiriticanfranzista. "See ya, Fluffy." The beast went back to its case, the Xians gave her one last bow, and then they shuffled out the door, possibly leaving her forever.

She waited till they were well gone before crying.

* * *

"There! See?" Tomo yelled. She and Osaka stood together before a shaded office window, looking at the smaller girl's reflection. After a moment of studying herself, the Osakan gal gave a huge start. "Whoa… holy cow!"

"Don't tell me…" Tomo slapped her forehead. "You _didn't notice?_"

"How about that?" Osaka murmured happily, oblivious to her friend's angst. She turned side-on to the mirror and put a hand on her hip, "Is that _me_?"

Tomo buried her face against the window, heavy with despair. "It's not fair…!" she keened. "I'm even taller than her! Why? _Why?_" Of course, even Osaka knew better than to be too concerned; after all, had Tomo really been in torment, she wouldn't be begging for attention.

"Aw, your day'll come…" Osaka assured, slapping her back and once again looking _almost _sly. "'Course, you might have to _pay_ for yours."

Tomo wailed to the heavens.

(A/N: I'm pretty sure some readers will be asking a particular question about Osaka and Tomo. The answer to this question is, "Well, if you want to take it that way, I can't stop you." Heartfelt apologies to my regular readers if the story starts to take that course.)


	2. Watermelon!

(A/N: Concerning the German in the previous chapter, the sentences aren't quite correct. What they were going for was, "These idiots have no idea what we're talking about!" "It's pathetic, isn't it?" I believe Osaka should have said, "Diese Dummköpfe verstehen nicht um wir sprechen!" while Kazuki replied, "Es ist pathetisch! Ist es nicht?")

It was a rare overcast day in the triumph of summer. The sun pressed furiously into the cloud cover, turning the sky an almost bright pearly gray and burning itself a great white spot that was hard to even look at. The wind flowed cooler today, almost bitterly, over Kaori as she wended her way home.

Sakaki walked along next to her, silent as ever. She didn't question their course; the truth was, neither of them was taking the most straightforward route home, nor had either spoken since they'd left the school building. It seemed that time to think was the order of the day.

"Ms. Sakaki?" Kaori asked timidly.

"Mm?"

"You don't think it's… weird… do you?"

Sakaki seemed unable to look at her or even reply for a few seconds. "Unusual, maybe," she finally managed. It was obvious she was working hard to avoid saying anything hurtful; Kaori could see the smoke. Warmed, she let her friend off the hook. "Look, it's that cat again!"

Sakaki's gaze snapped to the right and sure enough, the demon kitty sat on a low wall, washing himself. Drawn like an iron filing to a magnet, she slid inevitably towards another band-aid.

Kaori smiled to herself, reflecting that as sharp as Sakaki was in most arenas, she was hopelessly dense when it came to matters of the heart. What this could mean for the two of them, though, was uncertain. How would Tall, Dark and Beautiful decide to react to her devotion, anyway? How _should _she?

_CHOMP! _

"Ow," Sakaki said fatalistically.

Kaori coughed. It would help, first, to refrain from laughing…

* * *

It's always an unpleasant spectacle to watch a friend get chewed out by their parents, especially if you would've gotten three cheers for the same performance. This semester, Koyomi Mizuhara had slipped a little below her usual impeccable standard and failed to reach the honor roll. Of course, her marks would still have turned the Bonkuras (and most other students) green with envy.

If Tomo had made the Honor Roll, the reward from her stunned parents would have been stupendous. Dinner out, perhaps, and a bit of spending money. A new video game? Not out of the question. _When _Yomi made the Honor Roll, her reward was simple: she didn't get screamed at for five minutes straight.

And the excuse for her lapse, that an extracurricular lab project she was doing with Mr. Ogawa was taking some of her attention and it was only natural that her grades would suffer a little, didn't hold even a bead of water. There was no excuse. There was no defense. All that was left to Yomi was to slowly wilt under her mother's verbal barrage.

When Mrs. Mizuhara had finally spent herself and stalked off to make the promised hearty (and fattening) meal, Mr. Mizuhara rose and put a hand on his daughter's shoulder. He was a short, balding, heavyset man whose genes probably accounted for most of her weight troubles. "For, uh, what it's worth…" he said, "I say you did great." He then left to placate his wife.

Yomi's guests, expecting to enjoy her mother's cooking and not to see her mother cook her, sat by uncomfortably. Osaka and Sandra wore identical stupefied expressions, and even Tomo was a little cowed. She'd never experienced Mrs. Mizuhara as anything other than a kindly lady that gave her lots of food and she could be super nice around so that she would say, "Why can't you be more like your friend Tomo?" and really piss Yomi off.

"Well… that's something, isn't it?" Sandra ventured once Mr. Mizuhara had left.

"He _always _says that," Yomi replied tonelessly. She still looked a little wilted, but she was a tough girl; it came with the territory of being Tomo's best friend/punching bag. "Damn. And I still have a lot of work to do with Mr. Ogawa…"

"C'mon, Yomi," Tomo chided, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her a bit. And then a bit more. "It's summer! Can't you stop thinking about school for five seconds? Man, it'd almost be better if you started whining about your waistline again…"

"Shut up," Yomi grumbled.

"Seriously!" Keeping her hands on her friend's shoulders, Tomo turned sharply to address the others. ("Erk!") "Have either of you heard this broad say more'n two words about anything other than school in the past, say, month?"

"Well, she…" Sandra started.

"Sandra! I was being rhetorical!" Tomo said sharply.

"Yeah, she was being rhetorical!" Osaka echoed, expression vaguely severe.

"Oh…" Sandra subsided in confusion.

"At least I think about school at all," Yomi snapped, crossing her arms. Life had fully returned to her features, along with a healthy flush. It seemed that Tomo's needling had done her a world of good even as it raised her blood pressure. "At least I…!"

"Am gonna grow up to be a lonely old biddy with seventy cats!" Tomo laughed.

"_What?_" Yomi grabbed Tomo's collar and raised her fist. "You're lucky there are witnesses here or I'd…"

"Hm?" Osaka's expression was mild, but it was easy to see she was grinning on the inside. "_What_ is it you'd do to her if nobody was watching?"

Yomi was speechless. "Uh…"

"Ha ha! Good catch, comrade!" Tomo crowed. "There's no escape, Yom-!" then the _other_ half of the space cadet's implication hit her. "HEY! You take that back!"

More baffled than ever, Sandra gave up on following their conversation and just tried to enjoy the show. She was beginning to think that all Earth girls (and, come to think of it, most of the boys) were irredeemably insane. It didn't help her confusion when Mrs. Mizuhara returned happily with word that dinner was ready, just as if she hadn't bawled her daughter out good in front of the lot of them.

"What're you doing with Ogawa that's so important anyway?" Tomo asked as they started towards the dining room.

"Oh, it's…" Yomi started to answer out of reflex, then looked at her suspiciously. "Why the hell are _you _interested?" (Fortunately, Mrs. Mizuhara's sharp ears didn't quite catch her swearing; Yomi was in enough trouble already.)

"Hmph. Well, I'm hurt, Yomi. Aren't I allowed to show a little wholesome interest in what you're up to?"

"No. Your interest is _never_ wholesome."

"Ogawa… he's the young guy that talked to us when we were in the Godzilla shelter, right?" Tomo looked at her friend sideways and laughed when she nodded. "Ha! I _knew_ it! Yomi, you rogue, I didn't think you had it in you!"

"I'm lost," Sandra said pathetically.

"It's just the second door on…" Osaka giggled when the American covered her eyes. "Sorry. Y'get used to them…" she considered. "Nah, y'never get used to 'em. Or me."

"I figured," Sandra sighed.

* * *

Later that night, they lounged about the living room again, sluggish and happy from a heavy, western-style meal that even recently would have thrown Yomi into a crazed, guilty panic and kicked off a new diet right then and there. And believe you me, a sluggish Tomo is a bizarre sight. She looked as if she was trying to caper and leap about as usual, only with a thirty-pound lead weight in her stomach.

"So what is it you and Ogawa-chan do, then, huh? Here's what I think you- ack!"

Without even stirring from her chair, Yomi tripped her in one sure move, taking the wildcat idiot down before she could start her famed Making-Out impression. "If you must know," Yomi said tiredly, hands resting on her belly, "He's experimenting with a new substance called micro-oxygen, and needs an extra pair of hands."

Tomo's eyes glazed slightly. "Micro…?"

"Sounds kinky," Osaka commented distantly. There followed the long, incredibly awkward, 'e-e-e-e-er…' sort of pause that only Osaka could bring to pass. Into this silence stabbed the piercing, rude sound of a telephone ringing.

Yomi answered swiftly; Tomo occasionally beat her to the phone and these incidents were always embarrassing. "Hello? Oh, hey, Chiyo-chan… yeah, tomorrow morning's the last before… what? Why not?… What do you mean?… I'm sorry, I can't-" she flinched. "Okay. Yeah… no, no, it's all right. I won't go… I know you mean well, and… okay. See you tomorrow. Right. Bye."

Tomo leapt upon her as she hung up. "What was _that_ about?"

"Looks like I'll have to postpone my meeting with Mr. Ogawa…" Yomi shook her head wonderingly. "I've never heard her so upset."

"Ah ha! She found out about their tempestuous love-affair!" Tomo cried, leaping into the air. Yomi's fist caught her in the nose before she even landed.

* * *

The sun came out the next day, as they all knew it must. It was the first proper day of Summer Vacation, after all, and the day they would set out for Chiyo-chan's summer home. They filtered in one-by-one, minds full of happy visions: the ocean, the sun, fireworks, sand castles, dolphins, komodo dragons (Sandra had been listening to Osaka again), and, most of all…

"WATERMELONS!" Tomo howled. "It's gonna be a citrus apocalypse!"

"Um, watermelons aren't citrus," Chiyo corrected diffidently.

"A vermiform apocalypse, then!"

"That's your appendix…"

"Well, goddammit, it's gonna be an apocalypse of _something_!"

The girls stood in a rough circle in the shade of the veranda, duffel bags or packs slung over shoulders or lying by their feet. The only exception was Sakaki, who sat against a tree nearby with Mr. Tadakichi resting alongside, blissfully scratching him behind his ears. Nobody went over to her; she seemed to have thrown up a psychic force-field of some kind.

"Are you okay, Chiyo?" Sandra asked.

The smaller girl turned to her in surprise. Truth be told, she did look a little worn out and bent slightly more than necessary under the weight of the duffel on her shoulder. "Oh, it's nothing important, Ms. Sandra," she assured, smiling, "My father and I just had a… falling-out, that's all."

Sandra blinked. She tried to imagine polite little Chiyo-chan having a falling-out with _anyone_, and it came out something like, "Um, father? I'm very sorry, but… _YOU'RE A BIG FAT IDIOT!_" She snorted a laugh and turned away swiftly. It was odd, though… was everyone in the world getting yelled at lately?

"It'll be great to swim in the ocean again," Kagura was saying excitedly to Osaka, "It's like nothing else!"

"Watch out so ya don't rust," Osaka cautioned.

"What…?"

"You once said you were made of steel or somethin'."

"I was being, uh, rhetorical."

"Lotta that goin' around…"

Tomo took an imaginary mike, threw out her chest and cast a hand towards Kaori. "And joining us for the first time… KAORI!"

"What about me?" Sandra asked.

"You don't count!" Tomo barked. "Don't ask, I don't know why!"

It was then that the estate's gates opened to admit two cars. One was a sensible little vehicle, fairly cheap but well maintained, and commanded by Ms. Kurosawa, a conscientious, careful and considerate driver. It oozed peace and safety. The other, however…

Was the YUKARIMOBILE!

It was a fusion of human and machine more terrible than anything Todd McFarlane ever designed: the psychotic, diabolical brainwave of Ms. Yukari directing a half-ton dented, dinged, scratched and scorched (…the hell?) chassis at speeds that stuntmen fear and pedestrians flee! Even King Ghidora would have been unnerved to see this harbinger of terror racing towards his feet, so was it any wonder that Chiyo went pale at the sight of it?

"All right, guys," Yomi said gravely. "This is for your lives! Rock, paper…"

But Chiyo was somehow already in Ms. Kurosawa's car. It hadn't even stopped yet.

"Whoa, she's _talented!_" Tomo cheered, "I'll bet she could jack a car right out of under you!"

"What on X… uh, Earth is _that?_" Sandra yelped.

"It's my ride!" Yukari called, disembarking. "Pretty classy, isn't it?"

"Um…" Sandra turned back to the circle. "Sorry, I can't ride in that vehicle on the grounds that I am a complete wuss."

"Doesn't work like that," Yomi gritted, holding out her fist mercilessly. "Rock…"

Thoughtful, Kagura looked over at the still-panicked Chiyo and recalled the small girl's composure as she lay pinned on a street in Sendai, waiting for a Frontier missile to fall on her head or a gravity beam to obliterate her. As the teachers drew near, Kagura pointed towards Yukari. "You should be very proud," she commended. "Huh… or totally ashamed. I'm not sure which."

"I know which one _she'll_ choose," Nyamo muttered.

* * *

_KABOOM! CRASHHHHH!_

Lightning danced and flickered above the thick, brooding clouds, peppering the dark ground and heaving waves with rapid-fire bursts of light. It hadn't started to rain yet, but a fresh smell in the swiftly growing breeze promised it. At first, the summer home was a warm, bright haven against the advancing elements, but before long their power started to flicker intermittently.

"Gonna be a big one," Kagura commented idly, dropping her feet lightly on the coffee table.

"Man, this _sucks!_" Tomo stalked back and forth in front of them, still in her swimsuit, hitting them with flecks of water with every forceful move. "We were having fun!"

"We still can," Yomi reminded. "Be reasonable. We had a full day already anyway."

"And I've got just the thing!" Yukari announced proudly, coming down the stairs. There was a large paper bag over her shoulder. Her fellow educator sat bolt upright. "Oh, no. No, you did _not…!_" Nyamo rushed over and jerked the bag down, revealing the neck of a bottle of sake. "For God's sake, Yukari, they're _minors!_"

Mood instantly improved, Tomo moved over to take part in the ruckus, leaving behind her a much quieter sitting room. "It's actually kind of nice, isn't it?" Chiyo commented as the wind outside rose an octave. There was a faraway look in her eyes and an odd little smile on her lips. Flickering lightning played over her face, and for an instant she achieved almost Osakan levels of creepiness.

"You could learn to enjoy it," Kaori agreed. A peal of thunder produced a momentary lull in the Battle for Yukari's Sake. "I remember you used to be terrified of thunder.""That's right, I was…" Chiyo looked down. "Things happened, I guess."

_Why does she look like this?_ Yomi wondered uneasily, _So… weary?_

"Ms. Osaka, isn't this the perfect time for one of your horror…?" The prodigy blinked anxiously, suddenly herself again. "Er… does anybody know where Ms. Osaka is?"

Osaka would have been proud that she caused an 'e-e-e-er…' without even being present. After a brief search, Sakaki stood, walked to the window and nodded with a confirmed suspicion. "The beach," she said tersely, "I'll go."

"Ms. Sakaki? Um, be… be careful!" Chiyo felt like an idiot for worrying but wasn't able to help it. They were all beginning to get the feeling that there was something apart from ionization in the air.

"Yeah," Sakaki nodded with a very slight, gentle-and-yet-oh-so-badass smile. Steeling herself, the towering girl set out into the teal evening and howling wind. Her passing left them in silence, except for the weirdly distant-sounding argument between their guardians and the frighteningly immediate-sounding wind. The power stuttered again, then at long last gave up the ghost.

"I'm sorry," Sandra finally asked into the darkness, "But why is everybody so tense?"

"Shit if we know," Kagura answered easily, then stretched out and seemed to fall asleep. Sitting next to her, though, Yomi could see that her limbs were still tensed. _Something's wrong…_

Sakaki walked swiftly down the short path to the beach, nearing a tiny dark spot that she'd assumed to be Osaka. Sure enough, the delicate girl sat hugging her knees and gazing into the roiling clouds, rocking slightly every now and then. "Osaka?" Sakaki crouched next to her, hair flailing and whipping about. "What are you doing out here?"

"Jus' thinkin' about ridin' dolphins again, I guess," Osaka answered with a soft giggle. "I don't know."

"You should come inside."

"Why? It's nice out here." Thunder cackled sharply right above them. For not the first time, Sakaki caught herself wondering if her friend was even human. "Can ya smell it in the air? Past the rain? You can too, can't ya?"

Sakaki swallowed. "Osaka…?"

"I'll be along," she said spaciously, "Don't worry about me."

Rain started to fall over the water with a gentle hissing sound. As Sakaki stood there and watched the leading edge of the rainstorm rush towards them, all at once, she felt palpably menaced; the completely ridiculous but undeniable feeling that something was coming for them. She took Osaka's arm. "Let's go," came out a little more sharply than she meant.

"If ya say so," Osaka replied, not seeming to care one way or the other. They were pretty well doused before they made it indoors, much to Tomo's hilarity. Ever the concerned host, Chiyo offered them towels, and they changed into pajamas to settle down for the night. A big, purple doom that made Osaka's report card look like a gnat crouched outside in the rain, working the windowframes with its claws. (Again, metaphorically.)

It surely didn't keep most of them from sleeping, though. Especially in the case their vigilant and exemplary guardians, who sank so far into a sake-induced coma (having solved their dispute the only way they knew how) that they didn't stir even when thunder shook the house to its foundation and rain hammered down like a torrent of ball-bearings.

Tomo slept uneasily, partially wakened by every flash of lightening. At one point she sensed Osaka settling onto the floor next to her, smelling the wind and rain on her clothes. _Y'little doofus,_ her addled mind managed before Morpheus overtook her once more, _What could you have to do out there?

* * *

_

The next morning was a pea-soup fog. It rolled over the water in gray immensity, bringing with it an awesome, heavy silence that stilled even the Bonkura's enthusiasm. The night's disquiet was utterly forgotten; the teacher's hangovers were more pressing by far.

"Your fault," Yukari croaked for the fifth time.

"Whatever," Nyamo replied, pressing a bag of cool water to her forehead. The icepacks were gone with the freezer; power had not yet returned.

"Ha! I win!" Yukari bleated.

"You win," Nyamo moaned.

Osaka sat out on the beach almost right where she'd been, humming tunelessly. She didn't notice as Chiyo came up behind her and sat down lotus-style. "What are you up to, Ms. Osaka?" she asked, disgustingly chipper. It might have been foggy and silent, but it was still morning, and she was still the ultimate morning person.

"Eh," Osaka replied, "Waitin' for Sandra."

"Oh, she's out here too?" Chiyo looked around, but the fog was impenetrable.

"Lookin' for the Komodo Dragons'd be my guess. I'd kinda feel like a heel if I wasn' out here with 'er."

"But, um, why don't you just tell her…?"

"I don't feel _that_ bad…" Osaka smirked. "You shouldn't, neither. She's findin' all kinds of interestin' stuff. Maybe I'll tell 'er when she gets bored or threatens me with a knife."

"A knife…?"

"Shut _up_, Tomo!" The house's door crashed open and Yomi emerged, yelling over her shoulder. "Go play in traffic or something!"

"Say hi to Ogawa-chan for meeee…!" Tomo called after.

"God! Stupid little--!" Yomi stormed past them and chucked a rock into the water. "She's such an immature--! Why the _hell _do I put up with her?"

Osaka didn't miss a beat. "I 'spect it's the hedgehog's dilemma."

"Huh? The closer you get to someone the more you hurt them? What does that have to do with anyth--?"

Yomi's aggravated question was interrupted by a scream. It came from down the beach, rendered ghostly and muffled by the fog. Yomi realized that it wasn't stark, 'oh-my-God-I'm-gonna-die' terror so much as sudden shock, but she was running towards it before her ears stopped ringing all the same.

Like lightning, the whole group (even their zombified teachers) gathered around Sandra where she stood, white as a sheet, ankle-deep in the water and staring into a pale wall of fog. She slowly held out a shaky hand to halt the tide of questions and pointed up at the cloud bank. "Wait," she said blankly, "Wait for it to clear again…"

"What is this, some kind of j… oh… oh, _shit_," Yukari's arms fell limply to her sides.

"What's goin' on?" Osaka asked, finally joining them.

The retreating fog answered her, slowly revealing a colossal tower of _something_ a few hundred yards from the shore. "What the f…?" Kagura caught her breath as the thinning mist revealed it in its entirety.

A gigantic blue rose! From a broad base, its slender stem twisted and bent its way up to a great, elegant ruffled head of blue petals. Two fat, pointed petals hung loose and swayed gently, along with mighty fronds the size of sails down the length of its body. A forest of vines that reminded Chiyo uncomfortably of tentacles hung from its neck and the bases of the fronds.

"S…see?" Sandra finally quavered.

"That does it," Yukari said positively, "No more sake for me."

Nyamo laughed.


	3. Escape?

One would imagine that, having survived an alien invasion and witnessed the attack of not one but four giant monsters, the girls would be completely prepared for something like this. The sad fact was, though, that all they could do was stand and gape in dumbfounded horror. As if apologetic for scaring them, the fog rolled back in and covered the monstrosity once more.

"Say, Koyomi?" Kurosawa asked when she finished laughing.

"Y-yeah?" Both voices were oddly casual, if a little high in pitch.

"You, ah, you can drive, can't you?"

"Well, I don't have a lis-"

"But you can drive?"

"Um. Yes."

"Good, 'cause we're in no condition to," Nyamo sounded so lucid that it was easy to doubt her, but one look at her bleary eyes and stooped posture would convince you that she was right. "Kagura, take Yukari's car. Yomi can drive mine. We're leaving."

"Now hold on a second!" Yukari protested angrily, "What are you playing at? I'm not gonna let a maniac like Kagura drive my car!"

"She could hardly do worse than you." In less strained circumstances, the others might have cried "Hear, hear!"

"Why are we in such a rush anyway? It's just sitting there! It's a big _flower_, for corn's sake!" The English teacher thrust a hand back towards the now-hidden giant. "What could it possibly do to--?"

_Whup!_ Yukari vanished.

The girls stared in shock. A menacing hum rose in the air, the whistle of tens of dozens of somehow mobile vines lashing through the mist towards them, but it took the thump of Yukari's landing a few meters away and her loud curse to break the spell on them. There was time to take exactly one step towards safety before Tomo finally got her apocalypse—in this case, a vegetable apocalypse.

* * *

"I almost feel bad about our resolution…" the Man from SSS9 said lazily, "But you have to admit that it _was_ rather clever of us." He put his feet up on his desk, regarding his subordinate benignly. The younger man had just entered with their lunch; after all, even terrorist overlords have to have a bite to eat every now and then.

"Yes, indeed," the other agreed readily, sitting across from him and handing over his food. "But I have to ask; why did we drop the creature in the middle of nowhere? Wouldn't Tokyo Bay have been better?"

"In the long run, perhaps. But you forget that I'm trying to prove a point to Mihama. That arrogant fool thinks that I wouldn't dare move against him, but he has sorely underestimated me. Our friend has a little daughter, did you know?"

"Er, yeah." The younger man blinked. "Hold on, we're not…?"

"Biollante, as you may know, was created by combining DNA culled from this rose, Godzilla, and young Ms. Chiyo Mihama… and a dash of kelp so that she's happy in salt water. Now, we've made it so that she's aware that she is not complete, and has an ardent desire to become so. Biollante is driven to find those creatures that are a part of her and take them into herself, thus becoming whole." Unbothered by his statement's ghastly implications, the Senior Man casually pulled the shrink-wrap from a bread-roll.

"And how… how does Biollante plan do this?" the Junior Man asked, disturbed.

"The finding? Oh, she'll attract Godzilla by pheromones and we've placed her so as to have access to the Mihama girl. As for the 'taking in…'" Instead of answering, he took a big bite out of the roll and chewed luxuriantly.

Suddenly, the Junior Man wasn't so hungry anymore.

* * *

If someone were to watch from a safe distance (probably through a telescope), the monster's design would have been obvious. The vines lashed and whirled in a wide circle about Chiyo, who stood absolutely frozen for terror with eyes the size of dinner plates, unable to move a muscle.

It wasn't quite a melee—to use that word would imply that our heroines had some way of fighting back. In just a few seconds, the young prodigy was alone, her only possible defenders sprawled all over a fairly wide radius, and before it even crossed her mind to escape, the plant's tentacles swiftly closed around her in a crushing embrace and bore her aloft.

"No!" Kurosawa sprinted towards her, heedless of the storm of hammering limbs, and just managed to grab Chiyo's ankles before she vanished into the mist. The gym teacher gave a mighty tug and, perhaps out of surprise, her verdant foe actually gave a few feet, allowing her feet to gain purchase. "I've got you!"

Chiyo didn't respond; in fact, she wasn't moving or struggling at all. Before Kurosawa's hangover-and-panic-warped mind could process this, though, a vine the size of her torso drubbed her across the face and she tumbled away. It seemed that all hope was lost, but then…

Osaka stood. She'd tripped and fallen entirely on her own in the first seconds of the plant being's attack, and so only ended up with a mildly savage beating. As Chiyo was carried skyward once more, the space cadet walked slowly along underneath her, clutching her arm to her side, looking upward with an oddly expectant expression.

Kurosawa tried to rise and make another sprint, but she noticed something that brought her up short. The vines weren't attacking Osaka--in fact, there was a clear space in the air above her, occupied only by something flickering and indistinct… but what on Earth could it--?

_VOIP!_

The vines encircling Chiyo-chan fell free and she hit the shallows with an unceremonious plop. By accident or design, Osaka was already by her side the moment she landed, and knelt to hold her head above water while the vines regrouped. "Oh, good…" Osaka murmured, "You're still breathin'… that's good…"

At some point Sakaki had found her feet as well, and now plodded unsteadily through the shallows towards them. She was the first to notice the monster's counterattack but her warning froze in her throat, along with her heart. Breaking through the mist above Osaka and Chiyo was a veritable skyscraper of twisted vines—a great net, a tangle, an unfathomable, seething mass of plant-matter, shrieking down on the two girls like a squirming comet…

"Os--!" Sakaki choked.

_V-V-V-VO-VOIP!_

…and it was hacked apart by something every bit as unfathomable. Sakaki tried vainly to blink the pink afterimages out of her eyes; she remembered that sound from her ill-fated visit to Sendai, but she'd never had the misfortune of looking directly into an Astral Blade before.

When her vision finally cleared to the point that she could distinguish shapes, Sakaki saw her two friends huddled in the midst of what looked like a pile of green beans of the Gods. There was utter silence; a distinct lack of humming menace in the air told Sakaki that the attack was over, at least for now.

"Wh-what?" Osaka suddenly gasped. "What _is_ this? Chiyo-chan? Chiyo!"

At the desperate note in her friend's voice, Sakaki's heart leapt back to her throat and froze again. She started towards them, speeding up when she saw Osaka frantically do something that resulted in a tearing sound and a gout of blood. "_Chiyo!_"

Sakaki took Osaka's shoulders and pulled her back from the stricken child, but she resisted with lunatic strength. After hauling Sakaki forward a few incredible steps, though, Osaka's strength suddenly gave out and she collapsed in the knee-deep water. Thoroughly weirded out by the atmosphere and dreading what she would find, Sakaki edged around her towards the plant victim.

At first it didn't look so bad; the thicker limbs holding Chiyo had sloughed away in the water, drifting about her like grotesque streamers. But there were paler, thinner vines that still clung to her--no, on second thought, Sakaki realized they actually looked more like clear, flaccid roots. Her stomach turned when she saw the series of puncture wounds down her neck and arm where Osaka had torn one away.

Moving with gentle swiftness that would later serve her well as a veterinarian, Sakaki gathered the girl up in her arms and started for shore, Osaka shambling emptily in her wake. The rest of their party was recovering slowly, moving in a sort of daze that enhanced the surreal aspect the sunlit fog threw them into.

"Ms. Yukari!" Yukari jumped; she wasn't used to hearing Tomo address her so respectfully—or urgently. "What- what now?" The genki girl's eyes were wide, her face pale and bruised. Though she would have scoffed at the idea even ten minutes before, she was now just a child that needed to be told what to do.

"The hell if _I _know!" Unfortunately, at this juncture, so was Yukari.

"Sakaki, are you all right?" Kaori rushed to her idol. "Oh my God, you saved Chiyo-chan!"

"Er…" Sakaki glanced uncomfortably to Osaka, who disclaimed, "Wasn't me, neither."

"Is she okay? What happened to her a--?"

"Is everyone here? Say aye!" Kurosawa called forcefully.

"Aye," Yomi answered.

"Aye," Kaori was still preoccupied by Chiyo's strange wounds.

"Oww…" Sandra moaned, finally reaching her feet.

"AYE!" Tomo yelled, glad to finally have something to do.

"AYE!" Kagura yelled three times as loud. Though even she recognized that her competitive instincts were completely inappropriate at the moment, she was in no condition to try and rein them in.

"Not so loud!" Yukari moaned, rubbing her temples.

By way of response, Sakaki turned towards Kurosawa, showing her Chiyo as well. There was a good five-second pause, then finally Osaka said, "Yo."

"Okay, good…" Nyamo sighed heavily. "To the cars. March."

* * *

Apart from poor Chiyo-chan, the injuries from the Attack of Biollante were surprisingly minor. At Nyamo's ironclad insistence (set against the protests of Yukari, who just wanted to go home and go to bed,) they drove to the hospital straightaway. Chiyo was whisked away instantly, and the others checked over in their turn while parents were called and arrangements made.

Only two of the remainder had to stay; Yomi, who, apart from her particularly nasty beating, had been scraped by a thorn from one of the vines and come down with a mild case of poisoning, and Osaka, who'd suffered a broken collarbone and a mild concussion. Fortunately, their stay was a short one.

"Yomiiiii!" Tomo cried in exuberant greeting, throwing her arms around the taller girl and nearly toppling her. The scene caused quite a few heads to turn, but this sort of thing must happen fairly often around here. A pale blue sky shone through great skylights, taunting those still trapped in the hospital's bright-but-soulless halls.

"Agh! Bruised ribs! Idiot!" Yomi grunted in response, though even the insult sounded a little affectionate. She returned the hug a little haphazardly, greeting her mother over Tomo's head. "Thanks for coming so early."

"Don't worry about it, dear," Mrs. Mizuhara swept forth and embraced her daughter much more gently; Tomo had to squeak out of between them before she was squished. "Are you all right? You weren't lonely, were you?"

"Osaka was here, and our friends visited every day," Yomi smiled faintly. "It wasn't even a week. You shouldn't worry so much…"

"I shouldn't _worry?_ I almost lose my only daughter to some carnivorous artichoke and you say I _shouldn't worry?_ My word, to think that the last thing you heard from me would have been all those awful things I said about your grades…"

"It's okay, really."

Tomo wandered away, seeing no opening for her to worm into the conversation and become the center of attention. She'd left a sufficient impression on her best friend for the time being anyway. Glancing the lobby over, she quickly espied Osaka walking towards the front desk.

"Sorry, 'hon, no word on your friend," the receptionist said patiently before she even drew near. The space cadet sagged in place, looking so heartbreakingly fragile that Tomo was struck with the uncontrollable urge to rush over and sock her in the arm.

"_Ow! _Who-?" Osaka's panic melted into relieved calm when she saw Tomo. "Oh… shoulda guessed."

Suddenly remembering that her friend was injured, the Takinator gave one of her rare apologetic gestures. "Sorry, I didn't cripple you or anything, right?"

"Ah, I'm fine. Especially since I've got _this_," with a flourish, Osaka withdrew what looked like a retractable pen or a broken joystick and gave it a few clicks. _Clicka-clicka-click!_ "Eeheehee…"

"Um… what is it?"

"It's a morphine clicker." _Clicka-clicka-click!_

"But it's not _attached_ to anything."

"Then why am I so loopy right now?"

Tomo opened her mouth to give the obvious answer, but sometimes Osaka just made it too easy. "What were you gonna ask her about?" she asked instead, jerking a thumb towards the receptionist.

Osaka's expression fell. "It's Chiyo-chan… she's not better yet."

"Hey, don't worry. These things work themselves out, right? We all survived the alien invasion, right?" Tomo blinked, remembering who she was talking to. "Uh… sorta?"

"Mm…" In spite of the Takinator's artificial high spirits, the mood was dead.

"Oh, and Ayumu-dear?" Mrs. Mizuhara called, "Your father called and asked me to pick you up, as well." Mr. Kasuga was on a business trip just then; if Mrs. Mizuhara wondered why Osaka's mother couldn't come get her, she was too polite to ask.

"Actually," Tomo said almost-quietly as they started back towards the Mizuharas, "Maybe we should visit Chiyosuke before we…" It was instantly obvious that Osaka didn't like that idea one bit; in the face of that mighty cringe, even Tomo's nonexistent tact was stirred. "Well, sometime."

"Tomo, you can stay the night, if you like," Mrs. Mizuhara offered.

"Could I, too?" Osaka asked. Her fellow anti-Bonkura recognized the look about her: refuge. This made Tomo wonder a little--everyone was worried about Chiyo-chan, but Osaka seemed to be taking it particularly hard. Still, after having the snot beaten out of her by an ambulatory plant the size of the Chrysler Building, she agreed that there was plenty to take refuge from.

* * *

The sun was high in the sky, the wind rushed peacefully through Biollante's fronds, and it was almost impossible to imagine anything terrible happening on that beautiful stretch of beach. The obligatory swarm of military and scientific personnel had gathered, taking over the summer home as their base of operations, but they really didn't have a whole lot to do yet.

Mr. Mihama walked down to the very edge of the water and stared up at the gently stirring blue petals, ignoring the prattle and buzz of the useless experts surrounding him. "Damn," he muttered. "You actually did it. I underestimated you… Ogawa."


	4. Refuge!

(A/N: I found out recently and to my complete shock that the phrase "micro-oxygen" actually means something. Err… so just pretend that it doesn't, all right? The micro-oxygen featured here is entirely fictitious.)

"I'm glad you're all here," Mr. Ogawa addressed a tight cluster of students in a University lab. He was average of height and slight of build, with a narrow face topped by bluish black hair and dominated by a long, slender nose, the perch of pair of trendy eyeglasses. He gestured towards a tank full of huge, sluggish fish. "It's important that you all see this demonstration, and it's pretty expensive."

Yomi shifted to get a better view. She felt absurdly uncomfortable amid the college students, even though one would have been hard-pressed to pick her out from them. Mr. Ogawa had selected a few of his High School students that he thought would have something to offer, and Yomi had been too intrigued by his sales pitch to pass it up. Though this exercise was merely extra-curricular, he had broadly hinted that their grades would get a little bump upwards where he had clout.

"We are going to be working with a substance called Micro-Oxygen, which is a truly stupid name, but we're stuck with it. Does anybody here know anything about it?" Nobody did, but that didn't surprise him. "Micro-oxygen, first off, is extremely dangerous. It was a key component of Dr. Serizawa's Oxygen Destroyer, the weapon that was used to kill the first Godzilla in 1954… now, the micro-oxygen you'll be handling is inert and comparatively safe, but it's important that you know what nasty stuff this really is."

He took a packet from the table at his side and mounted a step-ladder next to the aquarium. Yomi was suddenly overcome by a sort of unpleasant thrill, the nervous sensation you get when the characters in a horror movie stick their heads into the scary cave, or when your rollercoaster car crests a steep drop and you really wished you were on solid land. None of the other students seemed to feel the way she did, though, so she put on a cool face and waited to see what would happen next.

_Plink-plip!_ Two tablets fell from the packet into the aquarium and started to bubble like alka-seltzer. Mr. Ogawa withdrew an eye-dropper and held it over the water, not dramatically, but with supreme gravity. "I'm going to activate the Micro-Oxygen. Pay careful attention… and, uh, you might want to brace yourself."

He squeezed a single clear drop into the mass of fizz that was growing amid the fish and stepped back down. Students pressed in around the aquarium as it filled with a murky gray fog and bubbled fiercely. Yomi, however, hung back, and so didn't have to go anywhere when her compatriots lurched back, yelling and gagging at the sight of fishbones clattering against the aquarium walls and slowly dissolving.

"So, needless to say, I'll want you all to be very careful."

* * *

"Are you doing all right, Chiyo?" Mr. Mihama greeted, full of concern. "You look tired."

"I'm fine, thanks." Chiyo sat down across the kitchen table from him, studiously looking to the ceiling until he had adequately hidden whatever he was working on. She used to think it odd that he brought Top Secret documents home to look at, but offhand, she couldn't think of a safer place. "We got our grade sheets yesterday."

"Ah," Yasuhiro said without interest. He already knew what Chiyo's would show.

"Everybody gets so anxious around this time," she continued. "It makes school very uncomfortable… I just wish that they could just see that a bad semester isn't the end of the world."

"That's easy to say for the girl who _never_ has a bad semester and doesn't have to depend on her grades in any case." Yasuhiro punched her arm gently. "Don't worry about 'em. School is a meritocracy, after all. The ones that work hard will get good grades."

"I don't know… do you remember Ms. Osaka?"

"She the hyper one?"

"No, that's Ms. Tomo."

"Oh, that girl with the shoulder-length brown hair, right? The one you're always helping with school work?"

"Yes. Yeah, I worry about her sometimes… hers is the sort of intelligence that you can't gauge on a standardized test. I don't think the curriculum was designed with people like her in mind."

"Well, with your help she'll do fine. Besides, there are many organizations that need a few sideways thinkers to shake things up, Mihama Industries included. School might not have a place for her, but the world will, I'm certain."

"Mm." Her father didn't quite have a grasp on Osaka's situation, but there was no reason to disillusion him. "And Ms. Yomi didn't do as well as she was hoping either, because of her special program at the University." Chiyo brightened. "She's been working with micro-oxygen, did you know? Her group's actually at the forefront the field! Isn't it exciting?"

"Micro-oxygen? Holy crap!" Yasuhiro's head snapped up and he completely forgot about the proprietary documents before him. Chiyo politely turned her head so she couldn't see them. "Who's the maniac that has kids mucking around with that stuff?"

"It's Mr. Ogawa, he…"

"_Ogawa?_"

"Er, yes, he…"

"I didn't know you had a Mr.… I mean," he covered the documents again. "What… is it he does?"

But it was too late. Chiyo had recognized his near-panic at hearing "micro-oxygen" and "Ogawa" in such proximity, and connections were already forming in her astounding brain. She thought back over all the times she'd caught her father playing at corporate espionage, image after image shooting before her mind's keen eye.

She remembered a particularly jarring incident when her father had forgotten to turn off the speaker phone, and she overheard a conversation with a fellow from something called SSS9 that had threatened her… come to think of it, his voice…

His voice.

"Father, could you please hand me the phone?"

He did so. She dialed quickly and waited anxiously as it rang. "Hello? Hi, Yomi. Are you going to that lab function with Mr. Ogawa? … Don't. I'm sorry, but I can't tell you.… Listen, he's dangerous, he… _Ms. Yomi!_" There was a brief pause. "I'm sorry, Ms. Yomi, it's just… you won't? Thank you… yes, I'll tell you as soon as I can, sorry… I'll be seeing you, then? I'm sorry… good-bye." She hung up and sat silently for a few seconds.

Mr. Mihama twiddled his fingers. "You know, Ogawa is a pretty common name…" The phone bounced off of his nose.

"You… _unspeakable_... _moron!_" Chiyo grated, visibly struggling to come up with the insults. A clinical part of Yasuhiro's mind noted that her chewing-out technique needed a lot of work. "I can't _believe_ you! I've… I've been going to school with a… terrorist _kingpin!_ You didn't see fit to even tell me his _name?_"

"Now listen, it would only be more dangerous if you knew who the head of…"

"A simple 'this guy could try to hurt you' would have been more than sufficient!" she snapped, "All these… all these dangerous games you're playing, and I didn't say anything because I trusted you to keep my friends and I safe! But then I find out…!

"Be reasonable, Chiyo!"

"Do I _look_ like I'm in the mood to be reasonable?" she yelled, pointing to herself. "My God! One of my best friends has been going off and playing with micro-oxygen alongside a terrorist that has it in for you for months! Any moment, he could've just… shoved her into the tank or something, and it would've been an accident, and _my friend would be dead!_"

"But he couldn't…"

"I wondered why he was showing such an interest in her! I'll tell you why, because if he'd taken me, it would have been far too obvious! You're… you're playing pachinko with our lives, you… unbearable… _loathsome_…_SOD!_" Suddenly, her wrath fled and the prodigy turned away heavily. "Sorry… if you need me, I'll be sulking in my room."

But as she started to leave, her father stood. "_Chiyo_," he said.

She stopped. It would have been a lie to say that Chiyo-chan wasn't occasionally spoiled and doted upon, for it came with the territory of having a well-off family and being so shockingly adorable. However, her father was careful to make certain she knew that while _his_ universe revolved around her, _the _universe did not, and there were times that his will became as merciless and impregnable as a glacier. This was one such time.

"Sit down," he commanded, voice hard. She did so. "Now hear me out. This is exactly why I never told you anything. I wanted you to grow up with as near a semblance to a normal, happy childhood as I could manage. I didn't want you to have to worry about international terrorist cabals, chemical weapons or hundred-meter-tall monsters, even if I was stuck in it up to my neck…"

"But… but he…!"

"Listen. Ogawa talks a big game, but he's a coward. He wouldn't dare do anything to hurt you or even your friends." Yasuhiro put his hand on top of hers; she didn't respond. "I'll check out your teacher… if he is the same Ogawa, he won't keep his job."

A long, tense silence followed.

"I… think I'll go get ready for the trip tomorrow."

"Atta girl. And don't worry about Ogawa or anything else… it'll all be taken care of."

By sheerest coincidence, the Man from SSS9 was having a good diabolical laugh at that very moment, though the Mihamas were far from his mind. It was amazing how menacing he could be whilst enjoying a rerun of Tokyo Breakfast.

* * *

"It's been so _boring_ since you were gone!" Tomo whined as they entered the Mizuhara residence. "Kagura's never been home, Sandra doesn't answer her phone, Andr—er, Sakaki's even more of a stiff than usual and Kaori…" there was a brief flicker of emotion that was as close as she ever came to embarrassment. "Well, she never liked me much anyway, huh?"

Yomi glanced her friend over. Curious… she was as scared as any of them, but it was practically impossible to tell from her bearing. Tomo was a strange case; her one frail defense was to be completely invincible, if that made any sense. "What've you been doing, then?"

"Ah, hanging out with Kiyoshi mainly. He was full of annoying questions, but I sorted him out!" She socked her open hand. "After that he was pretty good company."

Unlikely; Kiyoshi was about Yomi's height, and the boy was a few kilos heavier in spite of lacking a chivalrous bone in his body. However, she realized that it would do no good to dispute Tomo's account. "Are you okay, Osaka?"

"Huh?" Osaka glanced up as if surprised to find herself in Yomi's house.

"Yeah, she's fine," Tomo said, slapping her shoulder, then leaping back from her squeak of pain. "Shit! The collarbone! S-sorry!"

"S'okay," Osaka whimpered.

"Tomo, you moron!" Yomi barked.

"Oh… damn, I…" Tomo floundered, unused to feeling remorse. "Osaka, I…"

"Least ya didn't… slug me in the solar plexus…" she straightened painfully, then patted Tomo's arm. "It's all good." She then immediately gave lie to her words by shuddering again and disappearing towards the back of the house.

"But-!" Tomo started.

"I'm thinking something good and heavy for lunch," Mrs. Mizuhara said, already in the kitchen. This was typical; at the slightest hint of teenaged angst, she would retreat to safety and only interact with the girls through food and general motherliness, however misplaced. "Does chicken and alfredo sound good?"

"Sure, fine," Yomi said without really listening. Unfortunate--she _hated_ alfredo. "Thanks." The best friends had a fierce stare-down, which ended when Tomo took a hesitant step after Osaka. "No, I think _you've _done enough," the Bespectacled One said harshly.

Tomo blinked. "Well then what the hell are you staring at me for?"

There followed a vicious but entirely silent slap-fight, wherein Tomo pressed past her foe in the narrow hall and pushed off of her towards the back door. Yomi turned away and shook her head, then yelped when Tomo rushed back and gave her one last smack in the ear. "I win!" she chirped, then shot out the back.

Yomi pressed her thumb and forefinger into her eyes and sighed. "Hedgehog's dilemma, eh?"

The Takinator was wonderfully energized by her victory over her hated rival, and happily skipped through the house until she reached the backyard, whereupon she stopped cold in sudden trepidation. She was now in a situation where she had to _think_ about her next move, which for Tomo was right up there with flight and heat vision.

The Mizuhara residence's backyard was small and hemmed in by a tall, opaque board-on-board fence. A single, wide-limbed tree stood at its center, casting its benevolent shadow over an old swinging bench, where Osaka sat heavily and stared into space. It was… it was that bloody _look_ about her again!

While she was reckless, thoughtless and generally pretty selfish, Tomo didn't _really_ want to hurt anyone. It was fun to watch her friends suffer the everyday torments of urban adolescent life and laugh at them for it, but she didn't really want them to… you know… _suffer_. Fortunately, they were a resilient bunch, and Tomo was generally free to crash about heedlessly, confident that the worst she'd do wouldn't hurt any of them (except perhaps Kagura in those weird, vulnerable moments of hers.)

But here's the thing: there were (thankfully rare) times when Osaka seemed horribly fragile, as if the slightest tap would make her shatter like a china doll. At such times, she avoided home and often ended up taking refuge at Tomo's, heaven alone knowing why she chose _that_ place. Tomo simply didn't know what to do with a friend that she couldn't beat up, call names or throw things at.

It only became worse the previous fall, when Osaka had picked up that freaky egg and fallen ill. Offhand, Tomo couldn't think of a more unpleasant experience than helplessly watching her waste away; it was a good thing she'd managed to get shotgun on that trip or the others might have seen how uneasy she was.

Swallowing her nerves, Tomo set out heroically and sat down next to Osaka. "Um… hey," she greeted stupidly. It'd been mere minutes since they parted ways, but she couldn't think of another way to start.

"Heya," she replied emotionlessly.

"Are you… really okay?"

"Yep."

"Because, uh… Yomi thinks… I mean, I… well, that is…"

"T-Tomo?"

Tomo had heard that particular broken note in a voice exactly three times in her life, once from herself. She turned slowly towards the Space Cadet, meeting her huge, dark, trembling eyes, and felt a sensation similar to that which a rabbit must experience as its eyes meet the headlights of an oncoming semi. All at once, Osaka fell into her and went to pieces.

"Um… uh…" was all she managed as the smaller girl shook with silent sobs, almost in time with the cadence in Tomo's head: _ohshitohshitohshitohshitohshit!_ The dreaded tap had come, it seemed, and so she had shattered. "W-what…?"

"It was like she was _dead!_" Osaka choked, "She was… dead, her hands were all limp and cold, an' those damn monitors wouldn't stop beepin' and her face was all pale an' there was nothin'… nothin' I could…"

This unfroze Tomo at least enough to allow her to put her arms around the Space Cadet awkwardly. "Hey, it'll…"

"Those vines, those goddamn stickers, they pumped her full of… an'… I tried, t'help, _he_ came, _he _even came t'help an' it didn't do nothin'! I didn't even get t'see 'im! He was right there, I was lookin' right at him, an'… I _couldn't_…"

"Who…?"

"It's all so pointless!" The exclamation was sharp, clear, and totally devoid of accent, and after it flew out, Osaka collapsed utterly against Tomo, long, shallow breaths her only movement. Tomo groped for something to say, but nothing, not even the moronic, thoughtless things that usually spouted forth without effort, came to mind.

_That's odd,_ Tomo noticed dully, _it's the early afternoon but it seems dark out. Wonder why?_ Of course, the sun was as bright as ever, and her personal pool of shadow was invisible.

* * *

Yomi paced back and forth a bit, listening to noodles boiling for the hated alfredo. The incessant bubbling made her think unwillingly of Ogawa's micro-oxygen demonstration, which in turn made her think of Chiyo's mysterious request that she not go to the lab again, which in turn made her think of the prodigy's current state…

"Ugh!" She shook her head sharply and started towards the living room, where she endeavored, almost successfully, to lose herself in a book. It was a nice little adventure set in the Edo period, starring a deliciously tragic samurai doomed to die if he did what he knew he must. That sort of thing was a lot more fun when it happened to fictitious characters.

"It's ready!" Mrs. Mizuhara called, bustling into the living room and finding only her daughter. "Where are your friends?"

"Good question," Yomi replied, clapping the book shut and losing her place. "They're probably out back; I'll go and get 'em."

Sure enough, her friends _were_ in the backyard, but nowhere near the position she thought she'd find them in. Tomo was sprawled back in the swinging bench, heels dug in to the ground to arrest its rocking. Osaka was curled up next to her, arms about Tomo's waist, head resting on her chest, expression peaceful but streaked with tears. For her part, the Takinator's expression was very distant, subdued, and decidedly un-Tomo-like as she gazed into the sky and stroked Osaka's hair gently.

"You're still out here?" Yomi asked.

"No, we're on Neptune," Tomo replied. She was shooting for biting sarcasm, but it just plain didn't come out. "She fell asleep and now I can't move."

Yomi almost chuckled at the thought of _anyone_ using Tomo as a pillow. As well put your head on a geyser. "She looks comfortable."

Tomo shot her a nasty look, followed almost immediately by a look that, with wonderful eloquence, asked, _Why me?_

"I don't know why," Yomi sat down next to her and started them rocking a little. Osaka murmured something in her sleep, but neither caught it. "I'd have to say you're probably the least nurturing person I know, except maybe…" she considered. "No, I can't think of anyone else. I have no idea why she came to you of all people, but then, that's Osaka for you."

Tomo gave a small, twisted smile. "Yeah."

Distantly, they heard the clatter of the table being set.

"Say Yomi, I know I'm not that easy to live with…"

"I know you know," Yomi interrupted with good humor, "You brag about it all the time."

"Yeah, well," Tomo said modestly. She rested her chin on the top of Osaka's head. "Why is it that you put up with me, anyway? There were all these times you were yelling at me and I thought 'this is it, I've done it this time, she'll never want to speak to me again' but it never happened."

Yomi's jaw dropped. She held her breath and waited a few seconds for the universe to end. When, after her shock faded, no pigs flew overhead, hell failed to freeze over, and the universe didn't implode after all, she decided it might be safe to answer. This was definitely, positively, absolutely the _last_ thing she ever expected to hear. "Well…"

"She's drooling on me," Tomo added irrelevantly.

"I think I figured out why Osaka called it the Hedgehog's dilemma. At first I couldn't figure out why she used that particular illustration for us, but I've got it now: as hedgehogs, the closer we get, the more we hurt each other, right? But now that we're as close as we can go, how much do you suppose it would hurt if we tried to pull our spines back out?"

Tomo stared blankly. "Huh?"

"Never mind," Yomi smiled and ruffled her hair. Tomo flinched a bit, half-expecting the pigs to take flight again. "I'll bring some food out for you, okay?"

"Then hurry up! I'm starving!"

* * *

As Osaka drew her first breath of the cool, salty air, she knew that she was in trouble. Smooth pebbles dug into her bare feet and a dark blue dress swirled about her in the breeze. Distantly, she heard a seabird go, "_Gaw, gaw, gaw!_"

"Ayumu Kasuga!" two very familiar and unwelcome voices hailed over the gentle rush of waves. She turned and saw the Shobijin on a low ridge a few meters inland. Now, she couldn't quite remember which one was the nice one, but the one on her right looked pretty happy and she didn't take that as a good sign.

"Oh, screw this," Osaka moved to pinch her arm.

"Wait!" Lefty (or Osaka's Righty) cried, throwing a hand towards her. "Don't go! Don't you want to see your son?"

"Of course I don't--!" Osaka almost awoke for shock. "What?"

(A/N: Okay… I _think _that got all of the Osakangst out of my system…)


	5. Buggin!

"Hey, has anybody seen Koyomi?" Mr. Ogawa called over the heads of his gaggle of students. "Is she missing again? Guess somebody doesn't want their extra credit…" Though his tone was light, he was grinding his teeth on the inside. Yomi was one of the very few students that actually had anything useful to offer, and certainly the only one that he was honestly glad to have signed on.

The students, High School and University alike, bustled about him doing tasks that he was becoming certain had been more trouble to assign and explain to them than it would have been to just do himself. He was fortunate, though; while they weren't first-class scientists, the kids were fairly smart, and none had managed to hurt themselves yet.

"Mr. Ogawa?" A mousy little HS student tugged at his sleeve.

"Hm, yeah?" Ogawa turned, trying to recall the boy's name.

"There's something… er… strange going on at my table."

"Strange?" He followed the student to a workbench nearer the back, where a row of vials containing soil treated by micro-oxygen waited. The plan was to see what sorts of plants could withstand the stuff, and to what degree (none had so far.) One of the firmly stoppered vials, he noticed, had turned a little cloudy. "Is that it?" he asked.

"Yeah… it happened all of a sudden. And look…" the student pointed, indicating a few grains of dirt on the table beneath it. "That's new. Is it leaking?"

Ogawa donned a thick rubber glove and took the vial gently in hand, turning it in his clumsily encased fingers until the two of them saw a tiny hole in the bottom of the vial. It wasn't chemical damage, he could see; it was far too focused. Almost as if something had been stabbed through the plastic from the inside… or… chewed it away?

A knock came at the lab's door, but he was distracted.

"What could have done that?" the student asked, mystified.

As Ogawa looked up to answer, he saw a University student pointing him out to a couple of police officers. "The micro-oxygen fairy," he blurted, thrusting the vial into his student's fumbling hands, taking three great strides and leaping out the window.

* * *

Many perplexing things happened in Osaka's dreams, but this was definitely in the top ten. "But how…? He, Gathra… you know… died? Oh, but then he was protectin' me from the killer green beans… is he, like, a zombie moth, then?" she watched, fascinated, as her shadow leapt towards the Shobijin. It seemed that dreamland shadows weren't concerned with unimportant matters like the direction that light actually fell from.

"Well, _you_ died," the fairies reminded her. "Are you a zombie Osaka?"

"The, uh, the notion crossed mah mind," she admitted. In truth, she'd lie in bed and wonder if she was, in fact, decomposing and covering the blankets with her rotting undead putrescence. "Why couldn' I see…? He- he was there!"

"In this plane, Gathra appears to people in a truer form; whatever he means to them is made physical reality." Righty broke off with a delighted cackle. "That's _one _dream George Lucas won't be forgetting any time soon!" After Lefty shot her an admonishing look, they continued together. "Gathra is, and ever shall be, your baby, and that's how he wants to appear to you."

"But… y'said he's not _really_ my baby, jus', I was thinkin' of it that way…"

"As it turns out, _he_ thinks of it that way, too."

The tiny women started to sing their soaring, exhilarating, beautiful melody that filled Osaka to the brim and left her slowly swaying without a thought in her head, borne on the its mighty current. A rush of salty air came down on her, as from the beating of titanic wings…

"Not you!" Righty snapped. With a disgruntled chirp, Mothra wheeled about above them and flew away. "Come on," Lefty called encouragingly, "We'll need you too, Ayumu."

"Oh—r-right!" Osaka tried tentatively to sing along, but again found that she was compelled to accompany them with her own tune, humming softly and deeply. The whole took on a bitter, mournful quality with her addition, a song of loss rather than glory, but still every bit as lovely.

And then the sun was blotted out. As the music faded, Osaka opened her eyes slowly and looked skyward. Not a meter above her in the air was none other than Gathra, evidently travel-sized for the occasion, though his shadow still fell over all of them and about forty meters of the surrounding beach.

"Oh my God…" she quavered in English. Gathra's wings were a festive pattern in somber, twilight colors, fluttering unevenly as he descended and pelting her with little puffs of wind. She held out her arms and his sleek, warm, dark-furred body settled into them, the wings folding improbably as he turned one jewel-like eye up towards her. "Oh… my… God…"

Time has little meaning in these strange realms where dream and reality swirl together like the syrup in a blueberry and lime Italian soda (yum!). There was no telling how long she stood on that imaginary beach, transfixed by that astonishing blue eye, trembling in a storm of emotions that she had no name for.

"He has his mother's eyes," the left fairy commented teasingly.

"Yeah…" Osaka agreed, a giddy smile slowly spreading on her face.

"Isn't that sweet?" Lefty sighed. Righty rolled her eyes.

But then, all too soon, a mysterious shadowy ovoid faded into being behind the Shobijin and tapped at its ropy wrist impatiently. The visit was over, it seemed. Rather than separate metaphorical mother from figurative fawn forcibly, though, the fairies eased Osaka gently awake, giving her a happy, muzzy twilight before she was returned to the waking world.

* * *

"Whu…? Where…?" Osaka mumbled. Awake, but only barely, she was just aware that she was warm, on a hard seat, and her face was mashed into something soft. Reality came rushing back as a hand lightly swatted the top of her head. "I thought you were gonna sleep forever!" Tomo said, voice humming through her chest and into Osaka's cheekbone.

She lifted her head groggily, surveying the area. It was the early evening, apparently, and clouds had rolled in at some point to make the day surprisingly cool. Someone had spread a light quilt over her and Tomo, which must have made for a disgustingly cute scene. "Sorry."

"Nah, don't mention it."

"I mean, your shirt must be covered in tears n' drool n' snot…"

"I'll cop one from Yomi."

"An' how long were you stuck here?"

"Tell you the truth, I caught up on some sleep myself."

Osaka released her friend's waist and sat up, staring at her wide-eyed. "What's gotten into you? Aren'tcha usually more…" for a few seconds, her mind pawed through a pile of adjectives, most of them fairly impolite, "…uh _bouncy_?"

"Can't be my usual wonderful, effervescent self all the time, right?" Tomo asked lazily. "'Sides, I'd've had to ditch you to do anything interesting, and you're injured. Wouldn't be sporting if I threw you around like we both know I could."

"Oh, this?" Osaka smiled, starting to shift her weight. "It's noth-ah-ah-ah-_ah!_"

"Hey…!" Tomo put a shockingly ginger hand on her back. "Careful!"

"I'm dreamin'… _Tomo_ just told me to be careful…"

"I'm hurt," Tomo complained, not sounding overly so, "What, don't people think I care when _they're_ hurt?"

"Well, ya punched Yomi in the mouth when she had the toothache…"

"She was askin' for it! What can I say?"

Maybe it was just a spillover of happy feelings from her dream (visitation? Dream? Visitation? Dream?), but Osaka was suddenly finding herself completely charmed. "Aw, c'moff it! Why ya bein' so nice t'me?"

"Biding my time… yeah, just… biding my time."

"Y'know, I always felt safe around you, Tomo…"

Tomo threw her head back with an annoyed sigh. Safe? She rather preferred hearing people say, 'Boy, I'd better keep on my toes around you, Tomo!' or '_Nobody_ is safe around you, Tomo!' or, even better, 'We bow before your radiance, o great one. We are unworthy of your grace, Queen Tomo.'

But _safe?_

"Just wait," she warned with a forced chuckle. "And I'll get you so good, your head'll spin!"

"Ooh, you're gonna get me possessed? That would be somethin'…"

"I was being rhetorical."

"Rhetorical? Waugh! It's like a plague! Ya can't trust what anyone says anymore! The fabric o' society's tearin' apart as we speak!"

"Um…"

"Sorry." Osaka lowered herself back down, snuggling into Tomo again. "Goin' anywhere?"

"Not _now_," Tomo grumbled, laying her arm across Osaka's shoulders and lacing her fingers. Was _this_ what she herself did to Yomi? Imposing herself in such a way that it didn't seem like there was any alternative to accepting her? Damn, but it was incredibly annoying! With this soul-shaking realization, Tomo made a resolution then and there… to do so twice as much.

"Your antiperspirant's holdin' up, 'case you were wonderin'," the space cadet murmured, already drifting off again. By the time the 'e-e-e-e-er…' pause had run its course, she was snoring gently, lulled by Tomo's strangely deep, steady heartbeat.

Yomi reemerged into the backyard with a lawn chair and a book and set it up next to them, smiling an unbearable, smug smile at her best friend's predicament. "Not… a… word!" Tomo growled. She just giggled (since when does Yomi _giggle?_), which wasn't technically a word, but would still earn her a Takino-brand smackdown in the near future.

* * *

"Get up, Chiyo," a distant voice said.

Chiyo wasn't sure just how to do that; it didn't seem that she had a body at the moment. Her mind had drifted in absolute darkness, perfectly content right up until that mysterious voice hailed her.

"We haven't got all day," the voice insisted, "Come on."

And then came the weirdest sensation Chiyo had ever experienced. The thoughtless, sensationless, painless darkness slid away from her like water disappearing down a distant drain and she found herself lying in a shallow pool of actual water, dressed in her school's summer uniform, which was somehow completely dry. She sat up, looking around in stupefaction.

"There we go. I knew you had it in you, luv." The speaker was walking around her; she only caught a glimpse of white pants and wingtips before he passed from her field of view.

"Where… am I?"

The non-wet-making water she sat in stretched all the way to the horizon, becoming a greenish sea by the time it reached the rising (or was that setting?) sun. Behind her a range of deep orange mountains clawed towards a sky full of twisting auroras. And not two-hundred meters away, rearing into that bizarre sky to an impossible height, was the same hateful tower of vegetation that had attacked her and her friends.

"The easy cop-out answer is that you're nowhere, but that's probably not what you're looking for. You're also slowly dying in a hospital bed, and trapped inside of your own head, but I'm sure those don't help you either."

"Er…" she turned to face him, but she only saw a flash of white suit before he was again behind her.

"Uh-uh-uh! That's _not_ how it works when you talk to me. Don't worry, you're not missing much… there's nothing of me to see."

"But then what do I see before you're behind me again?" she asked innocently.

"_He_ warned me you were one for awkward questions…"

"I'm sorry, but who?" She instinctively turned again, but there was a patter of nonexistent feet and she was looking over an empty expanse of sea. That time, she was _sure_ she caught sight of a red carnation peeking out of a snowy lapel.

"Case in point. I'll pretend you didn't ask. Now, then, as for what this place is, those things behind you there are the mountains of Karrot-o, and what you're sitting in is the sea of Kabage. And this big flower is you, evidently."

"What?"

"Or sort of like you, or a part of you, or you're a part of it. I'm not sure myself."

"O-okay…"

"That's all academic anyway. After all, you're here on a quest. I'm sure you don't want your cousin there to hurt anyone else, right?"

"Er, cousin?"

"Whatever. In any case, the solution is really quite simple. You've got to scale the thing until you find its soul and then kill it."

"_What?_" Chiyo whirled in spite of the fact that she really knew better.

"Oh, you're not really the violent sort, are you? Well, you've got to figure something out… maybe you can talk to it, I don't know. And don't be intimidated by its height… you'll find that climbing and other physical things are easier when you don't have a physical form."

"Can't, er, can't you do anything, Mr.…?"

"I don't have a name. Strictly speaking, I don't really exist, not even in your head. And I honestly wish that I _could _do something to help you, other than offer useless advice, but I can't. It's the way of the world, sadly."

"I… I see."

"Oh, I hope not. By the by, you seem to be taking this pretty well."

"Well… I thought I'd be dead. And I guess I'm still in shock."

"That's good, that's good. Stay in shock, if you know what's good for you."

More out of morbid curiosity than anything else, she tried to catch him with her gaze again, but was only rewarded with a flicker of white pantlegs and shiny dress-shoes. "You _must_ exist on some level, unless I've gone insane."

"Oh, don't worry, you have. It's the only way you can save the world, after all… in this place, a sane person would go crazy trying to figure things out. Well, I'm off. Up you go, luv, and good luck!"

Chiyo looked up at the towering mass of Biollante and shook her head. "But… this is mad!"

"And so are you, at least for the time being."

"And I'm saving the world?"

"That's just what I said, luv. No pressure."

"But, wait! How could it destroy the world?"

"By destroying its only protector, of course. Wish I could stick around, but she'll be noticing you any minute, and I don't wanna not be around."

"Not be…?"

"Hey, I'm a pretty courageous chap, but I don't take threats to my nonexistence lightly! I'll come back if there's any way I can help. Cheerio!"

"But--!" She turned to him one last time, and this time, when she saw nothing, she knew that it was because he was gone. Er, more gone than normal. Blinking back an astral headache, Chiyo faced the towering plant being and cracked her knuckles. "Just… don't think about it," she decided. "Climb the plant, see what's up… um, there… just don't think too much…"

Though she was normally very quick on the uptake, _this _little escapade was going to take some getting used to.

Her father was also very quick on the uptake. When, sitting in conference with a group of scientists and military men in the main room of his summer home, he noticed ominous ripples shooting through his glass of bourbon, he instantly knew what was happening, even before the distant kettle-drum footsteps reached his ears.

"There goes the property value," he muttered glumly.

(A/N: I don't care too much about most of my OC's, but Mr. Doesn't-Exist-Not-Even-In-Your-Head is mine, _mine, MINE!  
_Ahem.  
Here, try and say, "ropy wrist" ten times fast. Easy? Well then how about, "metaphorical mother from figurative fawn forcibly"?)


	6. Psyche!

The evening grew cooler and cooler as shadows lengthened, and a stiff breeze came from over the ocean to chill the air further. Intermittent overcast gave rise to an almost wintry ambiance. After the string of warm days that had come before, one would have been surprised that their breath wasn't misting.

"The aquarium?" Kaori asked doubtfully. "Why should she be interested in that?"

Her coconspirator zipped up a light jacket and thrust her hands into her pockets. "It's the best I can think of," Sandra replied, "So long as we can get her out of that house… and besides, have you been there after hours, when they turn off the walkway lights? It's mystical."

"Or just kinda dark."

"I just hope Sanada makes good on his promise…"

"Wait, Sanada? But he-!"

"Yes, Kaori, I completely missed the dazed look he gets every time he's near Ms. Sakaki, and I've never noticed the way he stumbles all over himself trying to do right by her." Sandra said sarcastically. "I'm counting on him being sensitive enough not to press his case just now."

"I don't know…"

"Look, he wants to help her too. He's gotta know that romantic entanglements are the _last_thing she needs. I mean, heck, if even _you_realized it…"

"Hey!"

"Sorry. I'm sorry. I'm a little on edge."

"No kidding… yeesh." Kaori shook her head. "You know, this doesn't feel right."

"Yeah…"

"We're doing something for fun while Chiyo's in… that condition." It wasn't a coma, properly, but what it could be had them baffled. Not even Mr. Mihama could get a straight answer out of the doctors, simply because they had no straight answer to give.

"But what are we supposed to do, shut ourselves away like Ms. Sakaki did? I don't think Chiyo would want that…"

"Hey stop it. You're talking like she's dead already!"

"Al…ready…?" Sandra looked at her uncomfortably, then shuddered. "It's horrible, isn't it? And whatever happened to her, Ms. Sakaki saw it firsthand. No wonder she's so upset!"

"She'll pull through," Kaori said positively, not specifying which 'she.' To tell the truth, it didn't matter. There was nothing in their corner but optimism that cold evening and neither wanted to go without it.

"Assuming San-san comes through for us, this evening should be a big help," Sandra agreed. "And Chiyo _will_ be fine. I… I mean, what more could happen to her?"

* * *

Biollante was even taller than she looked from the ground. Chiyo's fingers dug into the plant's firm skin, releasing runnels of a thin green juice that crawled down her arms and vanished before she'd found another handhold. Howling wind lashed across Chiyo, alternately frigid and blazing, and damned if she could figure a pattern to it. There were about five suns that crawled across the sky with ridiculous speed, so everything had three or four nauseously turning shadows. (Or more, depending on whether the shadows decided to care about light sources.)

At some point during this arduous climb, she realized that she surely must have been insane; either because this astonishingly detailed and vivid nightmare existed in her head, or alternatively because now that she was trapped in this strange land, its workings seemed perfectly natural. That scared her most of all.

But enough about that: be motivated! Up and up. Chin up, eyes up, climb up, and forget about the fatigue because this isn't really your body. Climb, Chiyo, climb. Just don't think and don't worry. Things can't get any w—

"_Agaa!_" She tumbled free from Biollante, blood gushing from the backs of her hands. The wounds vanished before her feet even lost contact, but the released blood drifted skyward and dissipated on the frigid wind. By steering her fall Mega Man-style, Chiyo ran up against the vegetable mountain again and skidded to a halt, fingers aching. Now what on Earth…?

"Ah-HAAA!" a gravelly voice yelled from above, "Would ye look at tha'? Can ye believe who they're sendin' now?"

Descending the organic cliff was a roundish bundle of vines, employing its dozens of tendrils to climb with freakish speed and grace. In spite of the fact that this was a malevolent koosh ball advancing on her, all Chiyo managed to think of it was, _That__'__s __the __worst __Scottish __accent __I__'__ve __ever __heard! Maybe my subconscious is translating...?  
_

"Um, h-hello?"

"An' it talks! Will tha wonders nevah cease?""

Chiyo wasn't sure how to proceed. Was this some kind of guard, or just a creature whose territory she'd intruded upon? Why had it attacked her, or did it even need a reason? As she clung there fretting, two more of the monsters emerged from Biollante's surface and regarded her. "Uh, I'm very pleased to meet you. My—my name is Ch-"

"We dinnae ask wha' yer name is, lass," the first said sharply, "Give it tae us an' ye can gu'on through!"

"I'm sorry, but what are you asking for?"

"Well, whit d'ye have tae give?"

"But… but I don't know what you…"

"Would ye listen tae me, ye daft coont!"

"Er… did you just call me a-?"

"Chill, boss," one of the other monsters said, "It doesn't have anything."

Chiyo tried a different tack. "Could you please let me through? I… um, have an appointment…"

"Well… it nae be gettin' any higher if it cannae bribe us, eh?"

"I suggest that we cut it into tiny pieces," the third said in a voice that sounded vaguely like Stephen Hawking's. "And fertilize the mistress with its blood."

"Now you're talking!" the second cried. "Le's do it!"

"Um… but…!" Chiyo faltered as the three creatures swarmed down around her. Sharp vines lashed out and pinned her limbs to the wall, releasing more puffs of floating "blood". "_Ow!_ What-? I'm sorry! _Ah!_ Wait a second, I-! Please, don't-!"

"I would like you to hold still, please," the Hawking-voiced creature crouched over her. "Refrain from thrashing as this will hurt a great deal."

She gasped and squeezed her eyes shut… but then nothing happened. The monsters froze, sensing something new on the air. "Wha'?"

"It's on! We're throwing down!"

"Battle stations!" All three vanished back into Biollante, leaving Chiyo to slide free for a moment before she remembered herself and caught the wall. Weak… it seemed that she needed the blood or chi or whatever it was they'd released from her. Chiyo felt disoriented and anemic, and those colossal blue petals were as high above her as ever.

Chin up, she reminded herself. Be motivated!

Forcing her trembling arms into action, the prodigy resumed her climb.

* * *

We now travel to the real world to witness a scene only slightly less surreal. Biollante's physical form still stood in the ocean by the Mihama summer home (well what would she do, get up and walk away?), fronds stirring from the seabreeze and that mighty blue bud turning slowly to catch the last rays of the setting sun.

Enter Godzilla.

Of course the King of the Monsters would choose an appropriately dramatic time to hit the scene. He was a great dark wall of armor and muscle, the orange waves just lapping at his waist as he plodded towards Biollante. The beast didn't _look_like he was out for a fight; he led with his thick snout, apparently following a scent only he could detect.

The military types that had infested Mr. Mihama's summer home were in an uproar. _Again_ the Big G had put in an appearance without causing so much as a _ping_ on the coastal sonar established solely for his (un)benefit! Ignoring them completely, the multi-millionaire pulled a lawn chair out onto the yard and settled in to watch the looming confrontation.

Now, this wasn't exactly the _smartest_ move; it wasn't even a particularly good idea to be within ten kilometers when this sort of thing went down, but he couldn't bring himself to look away. For some strange reason, the possibility of being struck by a stray atomic death ray didn't cross his mind.

Godzilla ground to a stop and cocked his head to one side while a particularly strident burst of wind made Biollante sway as if she were bowing to him. So the standoff continued for long minutes: animal staring, plant waving. For the first time, Godzilla was drawn to a giant creature that he had no particular urge to tear limb-from-limb or obliterate with his death breath-a humongous, delicate _rose_ of all things, one that was even taller than he! This situation was a real head-scratcher, especially for a creature with his blunt, simple mentality.

Just as Godzilla grew bored and started to turn away, though, the seemingly delicate plan sprang into furious action! (That's a bizarre sentence, isn't it?) Green tentacles lashed up out of the water and latched onto his thick hide, straining to draw him closer.

While these limbs had been huge and terrible when they attacked the girls, to Godzilla they weren't even cobwebs. He brushed at them in irritation, becoming only slightly vexed when they refused to let go. He turned back towards Biollante and grunted warningly, but the sound was swallowed as more substantial vines snapped up and wrapped around his muzzle.

More of the heavier tendrils started to rise, grasping his arms and wrapping about his broad shoulders. From the way he jerked and struggled, one could see that he was under attack beneath the churning waves as well. The monster king took a staggering, reluctant step towards his foe, pulled violently against his will. As he drew near, yet thicker limbs wound about him and drew tight.

But then, Godzilla put his foot down.

With a muffled snarl, he wrenched one arm free of the entangling mess and tore the vines away from his face. Biollante wobbled strangely as the saurian crashed towards it, for the first time loosing his dreadful roar. One mightily clawed hand took hold of the rose's thick, ropy stalk as ominous blue flashes leapt up and down Godzilla's dorsal fins.

At this point, Yasuhiro came to his senses and started running for his car.

Behind him, Godzilla opened his mouth to release his atomic ray… but all that emerged was a horrible strangling sound and a few flecks of foam as Biollante's tendrils wrapped around his throat. Could this be the end of…?

Enraged beyond all measure, Godzilla jerked his other hand free, grasped Biollante's body firmly with both sets of claws and, with little apparent effort, tore her in half. The vines instantly lost their hold on his body, flailing free in a one last grotesque seizure as the ray that had been stoppered in Godzilla's chest finally howled free, blowing vegetable matter away like a sandblaster set against an ice sculpture.

Biollante's form dissolved into a cloud of glittering golden spores and vanished. Godzilla took a few moments to realize that he wasn't wrestling with anything anymore, but when his enemy's disappearance finally got through to him, he quickly decided that there was no reason to stick around and slid beneath the darkening waves.

"Damn…" Mr. Mihama turned back towards the water and slammed his car door. "Did he just… is that…?" All at once, he threw his fists in the air and gave a Dukes of Hazzard-style yell. "Yeah! Go, go Godzilla! You _wasted_ that thing! Whoooo!"

The King of the Monsters had come, seen, and utterly annihilated the demon that had tried to take his daughter from him… it almost made Mihama feel bad for designing weapons to fight the big guy! What a wonderful feeling, to see that chlorophyllic bastard…

…vaporized?

But… but what of the plans to study Biollante in order to find an antidote for Chiyo? "You prehistoric son of a whore! What the hell were you thinking! Get back here, Godzilla! I'm gonna kick your scaly…!" He continued in this vein for quite some time.

* * *

"Zounds!" Tomo yelled, "Blackmail most foul!" True to her word, she'd hijacked one of Yomi's shirts, a dark brown one that hung halfway to her knees. The reason for her exclamation was an envelope Mrs. Mizuhara had returned from shopping with; it was usual for there to be a roll of photos or two to have developed, but this time she'd come back with an unusual number of copies.

"What are you talking about?" Yomi asked tiredly, walking up behind her and leaning on the table. "And can you keep it down? It's getting late."

"Yon vile fiend! Thou hast… uh…" her archaic language stumbled for a moment, but she recovered admirably. "What vile deviltry dost thou plan for _these!_"

"Oh," Yomi took the picture in hand. "Yeah, Mom thought it was cute."

"Cute? _Cute!_" Tomo cried, mortally offended, but then about-faced and added, "Yeah, I guess I am pretty cute."

The photo in question had come from a few hours earlier. Tomo hadn't lied when she said she'd caught up on some sleep; in the picture, she was leaning back on the bench in mid-thunderous snore while Osaka slept in her arms under a blue quilt. It was _very_ carefully framed, so whoever snapped it had obviously taken their time.

"Relax, Tomo," Yomi realized the contradiction in terms, but plowed on regardless. "We're not going to blackmail you."

"Ahh, you won't gull me with that line, Yomikins! I know how your evil mind works…" Tomo poked at her temple. "But I have a few evil plans of my own! Oh, yes, you'll rue the day you threatened me with _these_!"

"Nobody threatened…"

"Hey, guys," Osaka greeted, making her unsteady way down the stairs. An orange shirt hung enormously over her narrow shoulders, also snagged from Yomi. There hadn't been anything particularly wrong with her own shirt, but she knew a good idea when she saw one. "Whatcha yellin' about now?"

"Look at this!" Tomo snapped, shoving the photograph into her hands.

"Aww…"

"You don't get it! If this gets out, my reputation will be ruined!"

"Huh? What reputation d'you got?"

"Tomo Q. Takino does _not_ snuggle!" Tomo yelled, throwing her hands out in a sideways-chopping gesture. "Never! Absolutely not! Ix-nay! And what's more, with all those jokes you make, someone might get the idea we're, you know,_in__to_ each other!"

"We're not?" Against Tomo's openmouthed shock, Osaka could only hold a straight face for about two seconds before breaking into an evil smirk. "Gotcha."

Tomo looked ready to launch into a ninja assault right then and there, but when she lunged forth, Osaka cringed so pathetically that it stopped her cold. "I swear! The moment, the very _moment_ that bone knits, I'm gonna break every bone in your body!"

"Sounds like fun."

Yomi covered her eyes. "I'm surrounded by numbnuts… oh, Lord, preserve me."

"Girls?" Mrs. Mizuhara called from the living room. "You might want to see this." Her tone put an end to the argument and summoned them forth instantly. As they entered, the television was on to the 10 o'clock news, and showing grainy, jittery footage of…

"Oh, that guy," Osaka commented as Godzilla's roar issued tinnily through the speakers. "How's he doin'?"

"Shhh!" Yomi hissed.

So it was that they witnessed the fall of Biollante two hours after-the-fact. Just as the plant monster burst into golden flecks, the news cut to an interview with Yasuhiro Mihama, who was uncharacteristically promising an "insane ass-whooping" for Godzilla when he resurfaced. When pressed on how it would be administered, he smiled coldly and said it was classified, then dismissed the reporters before they could start asking questions about his daughter.

"Wow," Yomi said. "I guess that takes care of that."

"No." Osaka looked disturbed, a rare sight.

"What?"

"Yeah, didn't you see? It got blown up real good! No better than real good…" Tomo groped for an adjective, but none came to mind. "Like… _so_ awesomely!"

"That's how it came," the Space Cadet murmured, sitting down. "I went out durin' the storm the night before… before we got jumped, an' I saw those sparklies in the air. It ain't dead, it's jus'…" The sense she got from watching the spores swirl was very specific, and she took a moment to choose the right word. "Vacillatin'."

"Vacillating?" Yomi asked, looking at her oddly. Normally she would have written it off as Osaka being Osaka, but after their little adventure the previous fall… "Well, that's good news, I guess. They probably want to study it to help Chiyo-chan, after all."

"Oh, I have a feeling she don't need their help…"

* * *

But Chiyo certainly needed _somebody__'__s_ help. She sat with her back against Biollante, straddling the base of one of the smaller fronds, gasping for breath and praying that she wasn't dead. The Carrot Mountains crowded out to the horizon beneath her, still and majestic except for when one would jostle another for space. She had no idea what had just happened, except that it had hurt like nothing else.

Biollante had dissolved beneath her, just as its physical form had in the real world… which wouldn't have been a problem if _she_hadn't dissolved as well. For an endless few seconds, her consciousness was lost in a cyclone of pain and confusion before she suddenly found herself whole again, clinging to the plant monster as if nothing had happened.

At first it seemed like the only logical thing to do was rest for a few minutes, but it quickly became apparent that the pause wasn't helping her at all. Chiyo was growing weaker and weaker every second, and there was nothing to do but climb again.

Stay motivated! Chin u… oh, screw it.

She scaled on autopilot for what seemed like years, aching and burning and just wanting to let go of the plant's skin and fall to a comparatively gentle doom. Not an option, of course, but it sure was nice to think about. Mere moments before she started to consider it seriously, though, Chiyo's hand fell on a ledge, and she was able to pull herself up onto what obviously wasn't the peak, but all the same must have been pretty near.

"Okay," she whispered. "Okay. Soul… what in the world does Biollante's soul look like? I gotta find… gotta find…"

At first, the verdant platform seemed to be empty, but over the course of her quest, Chiyo's astral eyes had become used to picking out the different shades of plant matter about her. With a prickling sensation on the back of her neck, she realized that there was another creature standing not five meters from her.

It was… her.

No, it wasn't. Its form was very similar to hers, right down to the pigtails, but there was chlorophyll running through its veins beneath the pale skin of a rose's stalk and fluttering hair even more shockingly red than her own. The being was apparently naked, but leaves that grew from its shoulders, waist and hips gave the impression of some kind of dress or kimono. It turned towards her and opened a pair of piercing amber eyes, noticing her with every bit as much surprise as she did it.

_Okay__… __contact! __Now,__then__… __I__'__ve__ got __to __keep __it __from __destroying __humanity__'__s __only __protector __or__ something__… __I __wish __that __guy __who __didn__'__t __exist __had __told __me __more! __I __don__'__t __want __to __hurt __her, __um, __it, __no, __her, __even __if __she __did __poison __me__… __okay,__ this__ should __be__ easy__,__she __seems __pretty __happy __to __see __me._

In point of fact, the Chiyollante looked altogether _too_happy to see her, walking swiftly towards the flesh-and-blood girl and taking her hand. Chiyo opened her mouth to greet her other self—but instead yelled for pain as the plant girl raised the proffered hand to her mouth and took a big bite into her wrist.

Acting purely on instinct, Chiyo socked Chiyollante in the nose and leapt back, heels skidding dangerously close to the edge. A terrifyingly huge plume rose from her wrist, a cloud of crimson life escaping her. Standing straight and (not quite) tall, Chiyollante ran a finger over her slightly-damaged nose in mild surprise.

_Maybe__ this__'__ll __be __a__ little __harder__ than__ I __thought__…_


	7. Rargh!

(A/N: Might I add that I'm very glad that nobody made any "Tentacle Monster/Japanese Schoolgirl" jokes about the last chapter. Now behold the healing power of the fishies!)

"You're having… second thoughts?" the Senior Man asked in exasperation. "Why now of all times?"

He and the Junior Man sat in his spacious office. Between them there was a mighty teak desk, its surface clear except for two dreadfully important sheets of paper. Beside them, the wall was entirely Plexiglas, affording a breathtaking view of Aomori at sunset. Dreadful papers and nature's glory alike were completely ignored, however.

"Well, for starters…"

The intercom buzzed. "Yeah?" the Senior Man snapped.

"Your nine o'clock is here to see you, Mr. Ogawa." The Senior Man cleared his throat expressively. "I'm sorry… Lord Ogawa." The Junior Man could tell by the voice's timbre that its owner was rolling her eyes.

"Get him a drink and show him to the waiting room. There's something I need to sort out, first."

"Yes, s… um, my lord."

Ogawa turned back to the Junior Man and spread his hands on the table. "Now, then, about these second thoughts…"

"Oh- uh, yes. I… I've started to wonder. What, exactly, is our cause?"

"Cause?" Ogawa stood, showing off the fact that, in addition to his smart business suit, he had donned a purple cape. It seemed he was trying to find himself as a diabolical mastermind. "What do you think?"

"Erm… I, uh, I think the pointy shoulders are a little much."

"I thought so to. Now, then… you want to know what the cause of SSS9 is, hm?" With a self-conscious swish of his cape, Lord Ogawa moved to the window and looked out over the crimson cityscape. "We had a cause, once, back when Yasuhiro and I were in it together… ah, but times change. I suppose now our cause is… um… well, we're out to… damn, that's a toughie. Do we really need one?"

"Well, uh, if we're hurting and killing people, it'd be good if we had a reason…"

"World domination. I was trying to think of a more poetic way to frame it, but there it is. World domination."

The Junior Man stared. "Are you joking? I… you know I can't tell with you."

"We're getting off-topic here. Why are you having second thoughts, specifically?"

"Well, it's the… um, you know how when I made my escape, that kid was burned pretty badly because I threw my vial at him?"

"You're second-guessing years of work based on one stupid burnt kid? Good God, man! What kind of terrorist overlord are you?"

"The hastily recruited High School science teacher kind. I'm just not cut out for this sort of thing, big brother! This is insane! It was all very good when we were planning in abstract, but now people are really… but… and what about Chiyo, huh? What did _she_ ever do?"

"We've been over this. It's not what she did, brother; it's what she _is_, and what her death can do for us. It's unfortunate, but she's one of the eggs that have to be broken to make our World Domination Omelet." He made a vague dramatic gesture, apparently unaware of how stupid he sounded.

The younger was subdued in the face of his brother's indifference. "But she… well, I _liked _her."

"We've got to break you of this. Let's see, who was that girl, your favorite student in the Micro-Ox lab?"

"Huh? Oh, Yomi Mi-" the Junior Man stopped himself. "Wait a second! Why do you want to know?"

"Aren't I allowed to show a wholesome interest in your work?"

"Brother, your interest is _never_ wholesome."

* * *

_Oh, nice work, Sandra. Awesome. You planned this re-e-e-eal well, _the Illegal Alien thought grouchily, bowing her head against a faint, pattering rain. This mystical Aquarium had closed an hour before, which was about the only part of her plan that had gone right. The sliding doors opened for their motley party after Sanada waved into a security camera hidden above their heads, admitting them to the shadowy linoleum-and-brick cavern that was the lobby.

The Fellowship of the Fish had fallen into deep silence, and it wasn't the good kind. Sakaki might have been some kind of golem for all the energy and emotion she showed, the wall behind her eyes even darker and more impenetrable than before. Kaori hovered agonizingly between clinging to her and fleeing her, shooting waves of hostility towards Sanada the whole while, who'd somehow devised a psychic shield against them since their last meeting.

The bluff, affable athlete had at first tried to cheer them up, but the attempt had been predictably disastrous and ruined his mood as well. And so the four of them had set out on a miserable quest through the dark and rain to find… this. Ugh.

"I'll be right back," Sanada said, and was swallowed by shadows on his way to the front desk. The three girls were left hovering in his wake, resting on a dim ledge over a chasm of shadow. "Well… sorry guys," Sandra sighed. "Guess I missed the mark on this one."

"Don't give up yet," Kaori found it in herself to say. "We haven't gotten to the mystical part, right?" Using her astounding mental powers (or perhaps just momentarily expressive eyes), Sakaki gave her the same impression.

In truth, Sakaki wasn't expecting much; Sandra was easily impressed by strange Earth creatures after all, and still deathly afraid of Mr. Tadakichi to boot. Still, she was warmed by the gesture at least, and perhaps being there with Sandra would help her to see it with new eyes.

Meanwhile, Sanada leaned on the front desk. "Hey, pops. Those're the girls I told you about. Can I show 'em the tropical fish?"

"They look like they're here for a funeral."

"They've had a rough week."

"So, which one's the one you wanna nail? I'll bet it's the big American, right?"

Sanada covered his face. "She's not an American and it's not like that at all! Why can't anybody see that?"

"I'm just kidding, boy! Man, you're twice as gullible as your mom, and that's saying something. Listen, I've just got the set the cameras up here and I'll take you guys on my rounds, okay? The tropical tank lights won't go out for another hour, so we'll be fine."

"Thanks. And keep the jokes to a minimum, okay? Like I said, they've been through a hard time, and…"

"Don't worry 'bout it. We'll give your lady a show she'll never forget." For some odd reason, Mr. Sanada felt compelled to knock on his wooden desk at that, but neither of them gave it any thought.

* * *

_Okay… no reason to panic…_ Chiyo stared at her other self apprehensively. _You're just about to be eaten by the astral projection of a monster plant version of yourself. You've seen worse… _

Chiyollante seemed to decide that the slight crumpling of her nose was irrelevant and fixed Chiyo again with that striking amber gaze. The plant girl walked gracefully towards her, wide leaves whisking with the motion. Chiyo held her ground, not so much out of defiance as because the cliff was right behind her.

The red torrent from her wrist finally petered out, leaving her even weaker than before. Darkness clawed at the edges of her vision, and some corner of her mind contemplated how nice it would be to just lie down for a little while. In the waking world, this would have signified sliding into unconsciousness, but she knew that this time the darkness would be final.

Chiyo edged sideways to get more room, head spinning. There _had_ to be something she could do, some way to protect herself. Unfortunately, her thoughts were just chasing each other in circles and the only tactic that came to mind was more from the Takino school than anything _she'd _actually do. C'mon, brain… c'mon… you're a child prodigy! You can think of a better plan than-

"YAHHHH!" It was a spectacular exhibition of the ninja arts that Tomo would have been proud of, though a real ninja probably would have committed seppuku just for being associated with it. Chiyo rushed forth with as near to a sprint as her battered form could manage, one small fist rushing in an arc towards her counterpart's cheek.

Without any apparent effort, Chiyollante caught her wrist. The plant girl placed one hand gently on the side of her head, pulled her arm out, and sank weirdly pearly teeth into her neck. Chiyo gave the closest she could manage to a scream, a tired little squeak, as a mortal plume billowed up from the wound and shefell to her knees. The world was spinning into oblivion but her mind was shockingly clear. "Well," she sighed, "It was worth a try."

"Goodness!" Chiyollante cried, "You can _talk?_"

"Of course I… ohh…" Chiyo started to fall forward, but the other caught her and knelt by her side. A soft green hand pressed to her neck, staunching the flow of life. By the time her wound had finally closed, Chiyo's light brown eyes couldn't even focus on her counterpart's, but there was still a spark behind them.

"I'm so sorry! Oh my God, you, you're… here." With a pained grunt, Chiyollante pulled the frond growing from her right collarbone off and pressed it into Chiyo's limp hands. "Eat this. It will make you feel better."

"Thank you," Chiyo replied out of reflex, but when she took the fist bite and life flooded back through her 'body,' she said it again with feeling. "Thank you!"

Chiyollante backed away a few paces and sat down, watching her other self with mingled horror and interest. "I didn't think you'd be able to talk…"

"But why not, if you can?" Chiyo asked, wiping the light green plant juice from her chin. The leaf had been good. Ridiculously good. Impossibly freaking delicious. Tasty enough that she found herself eyeing Chiyollante in a way that made both of them a little uncomfortable.

"I don't see why it's obvious. From my point of view, you're just some bizarre meat monster that came crawling up my side… er, please excuse my rudeness."

"That's okay," Chiyo said. "I guess I should have figured you were aware, even though, from my point of view, you're a huge rose that tried to eat me."

"Yeah, sorry about that. Uh…" Chiyollante scratched her collarbone.

"Will that grow back?" Chiyo asked interestedly.

"I don't know. I've never tried pulling one before. Are you feeling better?"

"Yes, thank you."

"So… since you're a thinking being after all, I assume you had a reason to come up here and visit me?"

"I was told I had to kill you, but to be honest I don't really want to."

"That's good. I don't want you to kill me either. Hmm… I had the feeling that becoming whole wouldn't be as simple as I imagined. But since you're self-aware… then I guess I shouldn't eat you… or the others?"

"Yes… I'm, I'm not sure on this point, but I think that by doing so you were going to destroy the world's only protector."

"Really? Protector from what?"

"I thought of asking, but the guy didn't exist." Chiyollante opened her mouth, but Chiyo held out a hand. "I tried. He wasn't keen on answering questions."

"Wow… so all this time I've been…" Chiyollante rested her forehead on her knee. "This is horrible! I'd… I'd stop all of this right now, but I'm not in charge right now."

"You aren't? Then who…?"

He stood about twice as tall as Chiyo, a muscular, bear-like form draped in a layer of mossy growth, flexing great claws of wood and gnashing the same jarringly white teeth as Chiyollante. He was a miniature Godzilla of the vegetable persuasion, the petals of a rose sprouting from his head like some kind of lamentable fez above narrow, savage eyes that were nothing to laugh at. "RAARRGH!" he said.

"WAAUGH!" Chiyo replied.

* * *

In the end, the Aquarium was every bit as mystical as Sandra had hoped. Without the lights of the walkway to counteract it, the tanks' glow was positively unreal, forming a gauzy turquoise corona that leaked into the shadows around them and made it look like they were underwater themselves.

Our heroes moved through an awesome array of colorful fish, from swarms of glittering tetra to mighty angelfish that hovered placidly and seemed to wink to them as they passed. Sakaki had forgotten how fun the fishies could be, but seeing Sandra's glee and amazement at this alien wonderland reminded her.

"Jeez, kid. They got fish where you come from, right?" Sanada's father asked laughingly.

"No, actually," Sandra answered before she could stop herself. Fortunately, the light was dim enough that he couldn't see the _erk! _look that came over her. Speaking for almost the first time since they'd gotten together, Sakaki came to the rescue. "Rural Arizona."

"Um, yeah! Arizona! I've never seen anything like this in person."

Kaori blinked. "But wasn't she fr-?" Sakaki glanced at her flatly and she subsided.

For Kaori's part, she didn't see what was so great about the fish, but she was very happy to see Sakaki's mood lighten, and a little of Sandra's enthusiasm was even infecting her despite her best efforts. She even forgot to dislike Sanada for a few minutes.

Ah, Sanada, the one member of their party who _wasn't _having fun. He was on pins and needles the whole while, waiting, just waiting for his father to humiliate him somehow, though it wasn't so much a genuine expectation as your average adolescent angst.

"Oh, what are these guys called?" Sandra asked.

"Um, Sailfins… I hear they don't usually get this big. There's a little card next to the tank, there."

"Mm," Sandra nodded, though she seemed disinclined to turn away from the twisting, shining school. Enjoying her enjoyment, Sakaki moved next to her and leaned on the high rail, the faintest, tiniest, most imperceptible hint of a ghost of a half-smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. The invisible weight that had rested on her since she'd found the injured Chiyo-chan seemed to shift a little to let her breathe.

"H-hey, Ms. Sakaki?" Kaori called.

Sakaki turned, but her one-girl fan club was absolutely transfixed by something in the next tank. "What is it?"

"Something… something's happening…"

Sakaki rushed to her side, hardly noticing as the smaller girl grabbed her hand in something very close to panic. There was a strange, light gray cloud growing in the domain of an unsuspecting tiger shark. Watching it grow and bubble, Sakaki was struck by the same feeling as before Biollante's appearance, when she'd seen the rain sweeping towards her across the ocean.

"What is it?" Kaori asked.

"We should go," Sakaki said. She wasn't sure if she was actually developing psychic powers or just knew a bad situation when she saw one, but this was definitely one of those. "Hey, what's wrong?" Mr. Sanada asked coming back to them. "Is it eating a--? Huh."

By then, the fierce, bubbling cloud had almost filled the tank, engulfing its tiger shark before the poor beast even knew what was happening. The Fellowship had gathered beneath it, curiosity outweighing dread, but only just.

"That isn't normal, is it?" Sandra asked. Kaori swatted her.

"Hey, don't—!" Sanada started upon seeing his father's hand on his gun, but it was too late. Before he finished his sentence, the tiger shark beat against the Plexiglas in an advanced stage of dissolving. The landlubbers' reactions were really something to see, but none were more extreme than Mr. Sanada's.

"AUGHH!" _Bang, bang, bang!_

After his outburst, a trio of craters was punched into the clear wall, but it held. Everybody stared at Sanada's father in mute surprise as he bashfully reholstered his gun and scratched the back of his head. Before any of them had truly recovered, though, an ominous hiss made their eyes snap back to the craters. Steam was rising from between them…

"Oh, _good_ one!" Sandra said acidly.

They parted just before the leak sprung and set an arc of dangerous water to splash down where they'd been standing and start chewing its way through the linoleum. A thin spiderweb of cracks was forming in the Plexiglas above them, growing faster and faster even as they noticed it.

Sakaki took off at a run for the stairs, towing Kaori by her hand. Behind them, the hissing, cracking and splashing grew horrifically. When the apocalyptic gush finally came, they were still four paces from the stairway and Kaori was lagging badly. Sakaki's rescue attempt turned into a sort of flying tackle, and the two of them ended up sprawled painfully across the stairs, a deadly gray sea lapping mere centimeters below their feet.

"Oww…" Kaori rubbed her hip, which had dashed against the edges of two stairs.

"I'm sorry."

"Sorry? Don't be ridiculous!" the smaller girl sat up with sudden energy. "You… you saved my life! You're incredible, Ms. Sakaki!"

"It was nothing."

"Nothing? Oh, come on, that was worthy of Jet Li! Don't sell yourself short!"

Sakaki drew herself to a crouch and surveyed the low corridor they'd just escaped. It was like the generic "bad water" of an old video game, not even a foot deep but impassable all the same. And, she realized with a sinking feeling, the exit was on the other side.

"Are you okay?" Sanada's voice bellowed from the distance. "Ms. Sakaki!"

"We're fine, we both made it!" Kaori yelled back, "Thanks to…" the dedication ended when she realized that she was embarrassing her idol.

"We'll call the cops or something! Just stay put!"

"Sorry!" his father added.

After their companions had left for help, Sakaki and Kaori sat on the water's edge, silently watching the ripples in its cloudy surface. After a few moments, without really thinking about it, Sakaki put an arm around Kaori, who leaned into her gratefully. "Thanks," she said softly.

"Yeah."

* * *

Being dragged along with your family to visit relatives during vacation generally sucks, but Kazuki didn't mind, especially since the relatives in question lived in sunny Okinawa and he needed a break from "the guys" in any case. The following morning he rose with the sun, intending to enjoy those few hours of sunlight before it became too hot to think straight.

He moved through his uncle's house, careful not to disturb his sleeping parents in the living room. As he passed the kitchen table, he paused over a postcard on the table and looked it over in vexation for the fifth time. It was from Osaka (his friend, not the city), and bore a picture of a green octopus. She said on the back that he'd get the joke, but he surely didn't.

They often tried to bounce jokes and ideas off of each other, but in spite of the front they put up for their respective circles, the two space cases were definitely on different wavelengths. Sometimes it seemed to him like their friendship was a contest to see who could be more inscrutable, and he, being of the male specie, was beaten out cold every time.

And yet people assumed they understood each other. This annoyed him to no end; it was like assuming a French guy and a German guy would automatically be able to speak to each other because they're both foreigners!

The postcard crumpled in his hand. "I'll get you yet, Ayumu!" Kazuki growled. "One of these days, you'll be so baffled that… uh…"

Before he could stew any more on this subject, however, he noticed that it was unnaturally dark outside. Either the weather service had been wrong about clear skies and there were clouds covering the sun… or it was the apocalypse and the sun had gone out!

Kazuki wasn't sure which was more likely, so he decided to investigate. He was already in a cold sweat and his heart was pounding away as he stepped outside, so he could be forgiven for fainting when he saw the hellish, crocodilian grin that seemed to have replaced the rising sun.

There, throwing the whole seaside town intoher shadow, was Biollante reborn!


	8. Salad!

The gray water rippled peacefully, smelling faintly of ionization and a slow, painful death. There was a soft, deep hum in the air, but apart from that, the Aquarium building was silent. Kaori and Sakaki huddled together on the corridor above their staircase, lost in their own worlds.

To be honest, Kaori could have stayed there forever, with Sakaki's strong, soft arm about her, raven locks brushing her face, and breathing her faint, lilac-y scent. Kaori was in heaven. "Er… Kaori?"

Her eyes snapped open. "Wha-?" She realized at that moment that she'd been… hm… perhaps the best word for it was _nuzzling_ Sakaki the whole while. She turned slowly and met her idol's deep blue eyes, which were a little embarrassed, a tad uncomfortable, and, worst of all, _pained_. In that look, Kaori finally saw what she'd known all along. "I'm s-sorry…"

Sakaki groped for something to say that wouldn't do her further injury, but was clearly coming up dry. That's what the catastrophic look had said: _I can't. I'm sorry, I don't want to hurt you, but I can't._

"It's okay, Ms. Sakaki…" Kaori said, sliding yet further away. "I shouldn't expect you to… I mean, it wasn't right of me to put it to you like… well…" While both of those statements were true, neither was what she was really trying to say. "You… you deserve better, anyw-"

"No." Sakaki's voice was soft, her tone gentle, but there was a freight-train's worth of force behind the word. "I'm not that great. Why do you think I am?"

"Because… well, because…!" Kaori turned back to her. There was about a meter between them on the top step, but it might as well have been another forty-meter lake of acid. "I always… you're so tall, and strong, and gallant. I can't help but… oh, hell, do I even need a reason?"

Sakaki looked down at the water. "Nobody does," she said with faint, bitter humor.

Kaori looked back at the water as well, and, to her complete shock, felt absolutely no urge to fling herself into it. Late in anxious, sleepless nights, she would imagine the final, crushing moment when it became clear that Sakaki could never return her love, and she could never imagine anything after it. Would her broken heart just stop on the spot?

_Thup thup thup…_ nope.

Now that the dreaded moment was here, Kaori's emotional reaction could be summed up thus: "Huh." She watched the sluggish, lethal ripples and waited for the hammer to fall, for her heart to collapse, for the final cataclysm to end her miserable existence.

…nope.

"Ms. Sakaki?"  
"Mm?"  
"Are we still… are we still friends?"  
"Of course!"

With that, a huge weight lifted from her. Oh, she was still sad, but… "Because, you know what? That's all I really need. As long as you count me as a friend, I have the world!" Kaori stood. "Hey, you wanna throw some stuff in there and see if it dissolves?"

"Uh-?" Sakaki blinked. She was already bad at reading other people, and this sudden turn would have challenged Dr. Phil. (Or Dr. Phil's irritating Japanese counterpart. You know he exists.)

"Aw, come on! It'll be fun!" Kaori turned back up the corridor. "There's this nifty water cooler down the… oh. Hello. How did _you _get here?"

"Er… the back entrance?" the rescue worker answered. Thoroughly embarrassed, the girls trooped after him, and thus were long gone when the tiny arachnid broke the surface of the evil water. It scuttled up onto the stairs, waving its feelers about, thoroughly baffled by this strange, oxygenated landscape it had discovered.

* * *

Yomi sat blearily at the kitchen table, staring at her pancakes and wondering why they weren't making it into her stomach by sheer force of will. The sun gazed benignly through the windows across from her, mild for the season but far, far too bright for her tired eyes. This was an abnormally bad morning, probably due to aching-rib-induced sleep deprivation.

The doorbell rang obnoxiously. Yomi glanced at the clock apprehensively and saw that it was exactly 7 AM, which could only mean… She rose faster than was probably wise ("ow!") and called, "I'll get it," to whoever happened to care.

She opened the door, dismayed to find that she was right. Kagura stood on her doorstep in a light jacket and windpants, a sweatband pushing through her jagged hair. Yomi looked her up and down, then down at her own pajama-clad form. "You're kidding, right?"

"What?" Kagura spread her hands.

"I'm just out of the hospital, woman!"

Some background might be in order. For many months, Kagura had observed Yomi's frustration at controlling her weight, and urged the Bespectacled One to join her on regular jogs. Yomi had given it a shot but found she just couldn't keep up with the athlete; no surprise there, but beyond that it just wasn't any fun.

Then came the trauma of the previous fall and the resultant break in Yomi's constant dieting. She would probably have returned to the grind after a time if not for Kagura's intervention. After a nice, long jog in a quiet evening just before winter fell, Yomi realized that she had a lot more energy for some reason…

So ended the Age of Deprivation!

But now…  
"Well, I thought you'd want to go for a walk or something…" Kagura trailed off.  
Yomi stared at her for a few seconds. "Do you want some pancakes?"

"Do I!" On their way in, they passed Osaka and Tomo sleeping on the floor. Osaka was spread-eagled on her back, snoring away under a quilt and a sign that read _Injured! Please don't step on me!_ Tomo had tumbled out of the couch without awakening, and her tossing and turning had landed the two of them in a slightly compromising position.

Kagura snickered, but Yomi just straightened her glasses and said, "Those two had a strange night."

"Oh… _oh! _Aw, man, they haven't gone Kaori on us, have they?" The idea wouldn't even have occurred to Kagura if not for Osaka's occasional joking insinuations.

"'Gone Kaori?'" Yomi raised an eyebrow at the term. "No, I don't think so. They've gone _somewhere_, I think, but not there."  
"That's a relief. You know, I wouldn't be that sur…"  
"Shut up and eat your pancakes."

After they'd gone through, Osaka half-awoke and examined the ceiling through slitted eyes. _Way too early,_ she decided. Before drifting off again, she lifted Tomo's hand away by its wrist and dropped it on the carpet next to her. "We gotta do somethin' 'bout that fixation o' yours, Tomo," she mumbled.

About one-fifth of Tomo woke up and looked at her stupidly. "Whuh…?"  
"Ne'mind. Go back to sleep."  
"'kay." _Thump_.

The anti-Bonkuras lay in peace for about ten seconds before a sonic-boom slammed through their bodies and shook the house about them to its foundation. Osaka sat bolt-upright, clutching her chest. "Ah! Oh, my heart!"

"The… the hell?" Kagura rushed to a window, but all she saw overhead was a cluster freakishly large contrails. They were intriguing, but mere strips of vapor, however thick, had _nothing_ on pancakes. "Eh, whatever."

* * *

Yasuhiro Mihama wasn't kidding when he promised an insane ass-whooping for Godzilla. And soaring over the mainland towards Okinawa was the colossal, gleaming agency of that ass-whooping. Behold, 100 meters of space-titanium awesomeness, loaded down with the most powerful and creative weapons Earth's technology could devise, slung beneath a tremendous airframe as though hang-gliding at Mach 1.3!

Behold: MECHAGODZILLA!

Yes, it _had _taken some doing to create a method to airlift the 165,000 ton monster. Much speculation was made on how this was managed, but only the most wild-eyed tabloids came anywhere near the truth. In spite of the fact that the world had suffered an honest-to-goodness alien invasion not six months before, most seemed eager to forget this.

As it turned out, the Big MG's maiden whooping would not be against its (his?) organic counterpart. Instead, the mighty machine was doomed to the undignified role of industrial-sized Veg-o-Matic. Well, in theory anyway…

For it seemed that as improbably fast as Mechagodzilla had been deployed and borne towards his target, the Real McCoy had beaten him there!

* * *

"RARRGH! GROAARRRR!" Godzillante said, the petals that formed his absurd fez waving about his head. "RARRARGH!"

"I know it's upsetting!" Chiyollante cried, waving her arms in a way Chiyo found creepily familiar. "Please, hear me out!"

"RAGHARRRGH!" Godzillante retorted.

"It makes perfect sense! Please, calm down and listen!"

"Grahr," he relented.

"Thank you." Chiyollante collected herself, running fingers through her astonishing red hair and taking a few deep breaths. "This young lady is Chiyo Mihama… she's one of the three that we need to become whole. But I've been…"

"RERGH?" Godzillante asked.

"That's right, I haven't consumed her, and I'm not going to. And you're not going to take _your _other part, either."

"RARRRARGH!"

"But we aren't the originals. Don't you see? If you just think for a moment, you'll realize that…"

"ROGGH!"

"Yes, I know that's what I'm for, but I'm asking you to please stretch yourself. I mean, look at Chiyo, here! Er, excuse me." Chiyollante took her counterpart by the arm and pulled her forward. "She's _whole!_ She's not a fragment of anything, least of all some part that was broken off of us. She's so different from me that there's no way we could be fused… if anything, I'm a part of _her,_ fused with something else! And besides, I saw when I bit her that her spirit has aged more than mine, so she has to have come first!"

Godzillante saw a few holes in her theory, and outlined them thus: "RARRGH! GROARR! HORRAG!" _Horrag? That's a new one. _Chiyo thought numbly. She'd long since given up on being scared or amazed; after so long, it was just too tiring.

"Yes, but…"

"GROARR!"

"I'm sorry, but what do you mean, 'he's here'?"

* * *

Just that. Godzilla was just pulling himself ashore on Okinawa as they spoke, examining Biollante's new form with shallow, brutish curiosity. This time, though, he was careful to stay well out of the other monster's reach.

Biollante was even taller than before, and far more massive. His (yes, he's a he now,) broad, bark-coated base was almost lost in the heavy, mossy growth hanging from his hunched body. Hundreds of tendrils, from the fragile, whip-like sort that had attacked our heroines to huge, barky limbs thicker than Godzilla's arms, spread out beneath his most disconcerting feature: a face. It was a broad, crocodile-like snout beneath a pair of eerie amber eyes, and mostly inert, though sometimes it looked like he was thinking.

The tiny seaside town that he'd set down next to didn't like this aspect one bit. Just imagine one of those dolls that always seems like it's staring at you… just _you_… and magnify it by about four-thousand times. Earlier in the day Biollante had made a cursory exploration of the coast, but after his vines were struck by vehicles, hacked off and set alight by overacting citizens, he seemed to decide that it wasn't worth the effort.

Godzilla stared for a minute or two, because even the King of the Monsters knows that you can't kill something without knowing that you ought to, then finally let out his dreadful, full-throated roar. If the civilians needed any more urging to head for the hills, this was that.

He plodded forth cautiously, declining to use his atomic breath. Though he'd never be able to manage algebra, the beast was smart enough to realize that the use of his terrible ray last time had led to this; he could taste the faint radiation on the air. His advance went on for a few minutes, but just when he seemed ready to plunge into his attack, history repeated itself, but on an even grander scale.

Biollante's mighty body reared up from his base and slowly turned towards the saurian, vines lashing towards him and wrapping swiftly about his meaty limbs and stout torso. Godzilla was having none of that, however. He tore free of their embrace as quickly as they caught him, lurching closer, ever closer to the point where his brutal strength would end their enmity.

But there was a new wrinkle this time around. When he was about two Godzilla-lengths off from his foe, a new sort of tentacle attacked. They were capped by round pods, almost like eyeless heads with woody teeth that snapped forth and dug viciously into the Monster King's tough flesh.

Godzilla's yowl of surprise quickly became a snarl, and he paused to tear these new annoyances from his hide. While he was distracted, more rose from Biollante's mass, but didn't close to attack like their fellows. Instead, they held off, weaving like vipers, until Godzilla was nearly free… then sprayed glowing, acidic sap over his body.

Two great limbs as thick as his legs wound about the King as he flailed, drawing him inexorably closer to that hideous maw, now yawning wide…

* * *

"You've got to stop! Please! We can't do this, it isn't right!" Chiyollante wailed. "We were made to destroy them but that doesn't mean we have to!"

"Mr.… Mr.…" unlike your clever narrator, Chiyo hadn't figured out what to call the astral representation of Biollante's Godzilla aspect. "Mr. Green," she decided lamely, "Please listen to her! There has to be another way! Please understand, this is import—!"

Godzillante wasn't inclined to put up with _two_ adorable astral projections crying to him, and snatched her off the ground with one terrible hand. Chiyo was jerked into the air over his head, where he let her have his firsttruly inarticulateroar since they'd met. "RAAAAAAAAARR!"

She cringed away from him, head spinning from the oxygenon his breath, about as scared as she'd ever been. It looked like her soul (or whatever this was) would be eaten by Biollante after all. But as Chiyollante cried out and the real girl prepared to die, her form seemed to flicker for an instant. Godzillante realized that he wasn't holding what he thought he was. Something… purple…

Like his reptilian namesake, he wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, but he had a certain primal wisdom that more complex creatures tended to lack. He dropped her hastily and backed away with sudden respect.

"What…?" Chiyollante helped her up. Chiyo shrugged, also at a loss. _She _hadn't sensed anything. For his part, Godzillante turned away, profoundly troubled.

* * *

Godzilla didn't really notice the lapse in Biollante's attack, coated in acid as he was. He continued to roar, howl, twist and flail, his spines flickering with atomic fire but held back by the force of his potent will. Torrents of light green sap/blood/juice flooded down around him as his claws tore great chunks from his verdant nemesis.

Biollante might have pulled back, if he were capable of movement.

Just when it seemed like the property value of this little town couldn't get any lower, Mechagodzilla made landfall. The flying wing left him to fly (or fall with style, rather) under his own power. His skidding landing kicked up a wall of spray almost a kilometer long, and would have been quite a sight to anybody who hadn't fled in panic long ago.

Godzilla noticed the shining titan from the corner of his eye and pushed away from Biollante, shaking himself like a dog. The acid had mostly burned away, and still his impervious hide stood intact. The plant monster's abortive assault had had little effect except to piss him off royally. In calmer times, he might have tried to get the measure of this newcomer, but all he saw in his robotic counterpart now was a fight.

Unfortunately, Mechagodzilla's young, hotshot pilot didn't see much of a fight at all. As the rampant saurian charged towards him, he ran up against the long twin barrels of a weapon mounted on MG's forearm. _B-THUD! THUD! THUD!_ Godzilla tumbled back, the unhappy recipient of several Kaiju-scale railgun rounds.

"Okay!" the pilot announced. "I'm in position! Commencing Operation: V8!" This prompted a few snickers back at Control, but fortunately, most of them didn't get the joke. A long needle (okay, it's more of a spike, but on this massive scale it can be considered a needle) issued from above Mechagodzilla's other wrist, and, holding the twin railguns on Godzilla's fallen form, he moved on Biollante.

The plant monster wasn't attacking Godzilla any more, but he didn't have any compunction about defending himself. Unfortunately, MG was now advancing through a billowing wall of steam as his armor glowed with terrible heat. The tendrils that tried to take hold of him vanished into flame.

Godzilla regained his feet in a fury, but—_THUD! THUD! THUD!_—shells cracked into his face and chest, throwing him back down. Biollante was having similar luck—instead of doing any damage, the acid just sluiced off the mechanical terror's armor, bursting into glowing clouds that made him even scarier.

The needle plunged into Biollante's mass and hydraulic motors drew assorted Biollante juices into a reservoir in MG's upper arm. The two heavy limbs grabbed Mechagodzilla, sizzling angrily but holding together, as the plant monster's mouth gaped sluggishly towards him.

The needle retreated and a long blade crackling with deadly energy deployed. With one incredible sweep, both of Biollante's "arms" tumbled free, geysering sap. Engines in bionic monster's legs burst, hopping him free of the entangling hybrid.

After checking to make sure that his Biollante-juice was secure, the pilot started hitting switches and pressing buttons. The lasers mounted on Mechagodzilla's shoulders swung into place, the railguns on his forearms clunked menacingly, ports in his chest opened, and multicolored energy crackled about his mouth. Presumably rockets would fire from somewhere; that's just a Mechagodzilla thing. "Operation: V8 completed," the pilot announced. "Commencing Operation: Coleslaw."

* * *

"She cannae take it no more, cap'n!" the vine bundle monster cried, "She's gonna blow! Ach, thee dilithium cryst--!"

"RARRRGHH!" Godzillante said.

"Faith an' Begorrah! We're finished!" the monster wibbled for a moment. "It was… it was nice servin' with ye, cap'n."

"GRARRRARRRH!"

"Right away, cap'n!" It swarmed over the edge of their platform and vanished into the astral Biollante's innards. "That's it, then…" Chiyollante stood next to her male, radioactive dinosaur aspect. "We're done for, aren't we?"

"RARRGH!"

"Um, excuse me?" Chiyo asked. "Couldn't you just…?"

"We could disperse again, yes…" Chiyollante shook her head sadly. "But we'd keep attracting the brute. Godzilla will hunt us across the world until one of us dies—better it be the fake than the original."

"So you're going to…?" Chiyo realized that this was the ultimate awkward moment: _so, you're gonna die and I'm not. Anything I can do for ya, then?_ "You're…?"

"Yes." Chiyollante pressed herself against Godzillante and put a small hand on his chest. This made Chiyo yet more uncomfortable, but she wasn't here to question the lifestyle choices of her vegetable demon clone. "I'm glad you convinced him to spare his other part, however you managed it…"

"GROARR!"

"Oh, is that it? How interesting…"

"Er, what…?"

Chiyollante plucked the leaf from her left collarbone and presented it to Chiyo. "You still look a little peaked. Here, for the road."

Chiyo snatched it gratefully and had eaten about a third of it before she remembered to say, "Thank you very much. I… fell a little funny, though."

"There shouldn't be any side-effects…"

"ROAARRRARRRGH!"

"Oh, no! Really? Goodness! I didn't realize! Sorry, Chiyo-chan."

"Side ef…?" Beneath them, the terrific mass of Biollante shifted. One of the sail-like blue petals fell and drifted tremendously down to the Carrot Mountains, who hastened to get out of its way. The green beings before Chiyo seemed smaller, somehow… she realized she could see golden mist rising from them and spiraling into the sky. "And you're… you're okay with this?"

"Well…"

"RARR!"

"Wow, I never thought of it that way! You're very deep when you want to be." Chiyollante laughed. "Yes, we're totally fine with it. Please don't worry about us. Now that I think about it, we have a pretty sad excuse for survival drive. It's amazing what you did when you were facing death."

"Uh, thank you." Chiyo looked down. "I guess… I should leave?"

"It probably isn't a good idea to stick around," Chiyollante agreed. She stepped forward and they hugged briefly. Chiyo yelped and jumped back when the other nipped at her ear.

"For the road," Chiyollante explained sheepishly. A profound, awkward discomfort slid over both of them until Godzillante broke it up by putting a hand on the head of his feminine, adorable little child aspect and drawing her back.

"Time to go, then, luv?" a familiar voice asked.

"How long have you been here?" Chiyo cried, turning in spite of the cosmic futility of the gesture. When the nonbeing answered, "Strictly speaking, I was never here," she growled softly and slapped her forehead.

"Who… who are you talking to?" Chiyollante asked.

"Voice in my head," Chiyo answered.

"I'm not even there! Ha ha ha haaaa!" If he was right, then the arms that closed around Chiyo and bore her to safety didn't exist either, and she must have died. Oh, but who says the universe has to make sense?

* * *

Godzilla stood once more, and seemed surprised when no more railgun rounds pounded into him. He looked at the flaming ruin of Biollante, then over and the robot that had brought it about. Having no knowledge of copywrite law, the being's likeness didn't particularly bother him, though he was aware of it.

"He might just go into the ocean," a man from Control said. "If he doesn't want a fight, don't risk losing the—_snrk!_—V8 juice."

"Roger," the pilot said reluctantly. And sure enough, Godzilla turned away from the imposter taking a step towards the ocean… and his tail, swinging around behind him, struck MG upside the head. _BLANG!_

Before the pilot could react, Godzilla was on top of him, wrenching Mechagodzilla's head this way and that. When something in the neck broke, Godzilla moved to bulling the machine to the ground, tearing into sheets of Space Titanium with his bare claws.

In his office, Yasuhiro put a hand over his eyes, listening to Control's frantic cries of, "Play dead, play dead!" He shouldn't have been surprised, really.


	9. Reunion!

"I'm sorry," Chiyo said by way of greeting, "I must look a fright."

And true, it was obvious she'd seen better days. Her cheeks were sunken and her skin pale, a light red sweater billowing out around her thin body. The hand she raised to them was bony and almost gray, while even her hair, blowing free in the hot summer wind, seemed to lack its normal color. However, her eyes were as bright and clear as ever, and her warm, easy smile made their worries evaporate.

Her friends closed in around her, full of happy babble and enthusiasm, the traumas and difficulties of the past few days vanishing. There was a round of mighty hugs, any one of which should have snapped her like kindling, and Tomo even seemed to forget her mission of Chiyo-abuse.

When the Wildcat Idiot closed in on her, she grinned and lowered her head to be bopped. "For old times' sake!" the prodigy offered merrily. "I'll even yell _agaa!_" (The trip to Okinawa was still in the girls' future, but Kazuki had kicked off Tomo's interest in that particular bit of Uchinaguchi early.)

"Oh, I'm that predictable, am I?" Tomo asked, regaining her balance. "Well…" With that, she grabbed Chiyo in a crushing hug just as the others had… and then made off with her! "Waaaughh!" Chiyo laughed like a lunatic even as Tomo blindly plowed them both into Yomi.

The whole gaggle of them moved together up the steps of Chiyo's home, practically arm-in-arm, Mr. Tadakichi whisking happily between and around them as they celebrated their reunion. After all of the strangeness and terror they'd endured, they were finally together again, and safe.

Yasuhiro was just leaving as their formation narrowed into a sort of ragged line to enter the house. He stood aside for them with a friendly, "Hey, girls!" And was greeted in turn by each of them as they passed, except for Chiyo, who paid him all the notice she would to a coat rack. Sakaki paused and looked to him curiously. "I'm still in the doghouse with her," he explained ruefully, tipped his hat, and left.

He'd come to this conclusion when, upon her triumphal return, Chiyo had hugged her mother, stooped to hug Mr. Tadakichi and then run right past her father to hug Alphonse. She hadn't even said 'hi' since returning, and when she occasionally deigned to look at him, he could see something hard, brittle and completely out of place behind her eyes. The whole arrangement would have stung a lot less if he didn't know that he totally deserved it.

Given the circumstances, he and his wife had decided that his planned business trip didn't need to be postponed.

Chiyo's friends were full of questions, of course, and she was happy to give what answers she could. Sakaki gazed down at her frail form, concerned and uncertain. One could almost hear the worried '_are you sure…_' before she asked, "Are you feeling all right?"

"Never better!" Chiyo chirped, and it would have been impossible to doubt her.

"Do they know what happened to you?" Yomi asked, referring not to the obvious giant monster attack, but to the bizarre not-quite-coma she'd fallen into after.

"Nuh-uh. They don't know why I woke up, either."

"Did ya have any dreams?" Osaka asked.

"You know…" Chiyo's eyes drifted to the side as she thought back. "I don't remember any… but I must have, because I feel a little sad when I try to think about it."

"Those're the best kind…" Osaka nodded, satisfied.

By this time they'd gathered in a sitting room, perched on various items of furniture, lying or sitting as was their preference. By accident or design, Sandra and Kaori found themselves more on the periphery, watching and listening rather than actually taking part in the happy interrogation.

"You know," Kaori commented, suddenly at Sandra's elbow, "It looks like they're complete without us, doesn't it?"

Sandra jumped a little; she was used to pulling that trick on other people, not being on the receiving end. "Yeah. You still down about… well…?"

"Eh."

The celebration rolled on without them for the moment as they spoke softly. "I'm sorry about Ms. Sakaki…" Sandra said, "But what can ya do?"

"Oh, it's not that. I always knew I could never, you know, _have_ her. It's just the thought that it'll be some loser like Sanada…"

"Two things: one, I think he's an alright guy, and two, I don't think Sakaki would fall for him in any case."

"Really?"

"Yeah… Sanada strikes me as… um, too convenient. He's like, the one she'd end up with if somebody who didn't know any of us came in and paired off all of Class 3-3."

"Huh…"

"Ice cream!" Tomo jumped to her feet and yelled, "Who's up for ice cream!?"

All eyes went to Chiyo, and when she simply grinned and raised her hand, completely unbothered by the fact that Tomo was offering her hospitality, the ice cream was swiftly procured.

* * *

"This is all very unsettling," Osamu growled, setting one of one foot up on a bench and leaning over that knee. His long black coat, which he bought for this specific effect, flowed dramatically in the wind. "Cover ups and conspiracies everywhere we look. You can't say something strange _isn't _going on over there, right?"

"Well…" Kazuki walked up next to him and followed his gaze to where unmarked vehicles surrounded the roped-off aquarium's entrance. "I guess it is kinda strange… but they'll take care of it, right?" He still wore a Hawaiian-style shirt and a lei of white flowers, remnants of his short stay on Okinawa.

"Oh, they'll take care of it… but not in the way you're thinking. There's some plot brewing to turn this to their advantage… this is _so_ like them…"

"Who's them?" Kazuki asked. He rather enjoyed asking Osamu this question; the answer was always different and usually entertaining.

"I'm not sure at this point… I think it might be a corporation, maybe even Mihama Industries, under contract by the government…"

"Oh, the government _and_ a big company, huh? Sounds like the devil incarnate."

"I know you're not taking me seriously, Kazuki, but I would appreciate if you didn't mock me." Osamu turned back towards the aquarium, longish raven hair whipping about his face. "Do you know about that research project Yomi Mizuhara was involved in? I was following it through the University webpage, but just a few days ago, Mr. Ogawa disappeared and the site was removed. With me?"

"Sure." In point of fact, Kazuki was distracted by watching a couple seagulls fight over some bit of detritus they'd found in the road.

"Yesterday, Sanada's father told me about the… incident in there, and it was almost exactly like the flash-video I saw of Ogawa's micro-oxygen demonstration. Somehow, micro-oxygen ended up in a public aquarium _after_ an incident in the micro-ox lab that led to a gag order and the teacher's disappearance."

"…so?"

"Oh, come on! You don't see the conspiracy in all that? Jesus, I'm talking to a bloody wall, here. Of all the guys, I expected _you_ to see my logic."

"So…" Kazuki looked at the ominous cluster of vehicles. "What do you plan to do, huh? Are we just gonna stand here and gawk? 'Cause that sounds pretty good to me."

Osamu grabbed his sleeve. "We're going in."

"I'm hungry," Kazuki said randomly.

"We're going to McDonalds. I'm treating. Then we're waiting for night to fall, and when their guard slackens, we're going in."

"Sounds good," his coconspirator agreed, still stuck on the McDonalds part. "Wait, what?"

* * *

"You got nothing! You got _nothing_ on this!" Tomo squared off against Kagura, basketball thumping rhythmically between her hand and the pavement. There wasn't a proper hoop at the Mihama residence, but the Bonkuras had improvised one with a defunct laundry basket at some tape above the garage door.

"Oh, yeah?" Kagura countered. She stood almost stock-still; her opponent was faking back and forth so fast that it really didn't matter. "I got nothing, huh? What about… _this?_" The athlete took one graceful step forward and swept the ball out of under Tomo's hand, took one more step to reach the imaginary half-court line, turned, and sank it beautifully.

"Yayyy!" Osaka called from the sidelines, "Touchdown!"

Kagura bowed and spiked the ball. "Shut up, you!" Tomo cried. "I woulda had that!"

"You woulda had nothing!" Kagura laughed, apparently deciding grammar was for sissies. "Where you goin'? This game isn't over yet! You get back here!"

"I just need a running start," Tomo explained.

"For?"

"YAAAAARRRGH!" Unfortunately for her, Kagura saw the Takino Flying Tackle Technique coming a mile away and simply sidestepped, much to the hilarity of everyone but her opponent. "OW! AHG! OW! I'll get you!"

"You'll get served, is what you'll get!" Kagura laughed, dribbling quickly.

"Oh, how I missed them…" Chiyo sighed, shaking her head. She took a sip of lemonade and sighed again. "Wow…"

"What's wrong?" Osaka asked, leaning on the patio table opposite her.

"I'd actually started to take all this for granted," Chiyo said, smiling. "God, you're all so wonderful…" she cleared her throat sharply. "Um. Better not get too sentimental. I just… scary experiences like this make you notice these things, don't they?"

"Yeah," Osaka agreed, for once on exactly the same page—for the moment. "Yayy! Touchdown!"

"Shut _UP_, Osaka!!" Tomo wailed.

Sakaki took a seat at their table, stirring her own glass of lemonade absently. She still stole occasional, worried glances at Chiyo, but as the day progressed, she seemed to accept that her diminutive friend was, against all appearances, just fine. She gave a soft little sigh and settled in to enjoy the unscheduled wrestling match that was going down in place of the basketball game.

"Oh…" Osaka murmured, suddenly distressed. She'd wondered why Chiyo wasn't wearing her evil alien pigtails, and the answer had just come to her. Pushing Chiyo's orange bangs back with one finger, she saw a series of extremely faint, round scars along her jawline from when the monster's roots had been torn away. "I… that…"

"Don't worry about it, Ms. Osaka," Chiyo said kindly, brushing her hair back into place. "It isn't your fault… nothing that happened is. Please don't worry about me."

"It's true," Sakaki added simply, recognizing logically that it was either agree with Chiyo or drown in a sea of self-recrimination. Not that it made her _feel_ much better, but that would surely come later.

"Yeah, but…" Osaka faltered. "But… Yayy! Touchdown!"

"This means nothing, Kagura!" Tomo yelled. "We're in a weird parallel universe where you don't suck! Shut up! Arrrrgh!"

* * *

Behold, the Golden Realm, that bizarre and wonderful world that defies description, stupifies the senses and purees the human mind! And behold its lord, the Eldest of the Elder Ones (behind Cthulu), that most magnificent and benevolent ovoid ball of feline goodness that we know as Chiyo-dad!

"And this is where we get off!" he pronounced.

"What?" his assistant protested. "But there's still much to do!" Looking at him, Chiyo-dad felt a faint stab of pity; this dark, armored figure had once picked fights with Bruce Lee and nearly won, but was now reduced to haunting the nightmares of children and running errands for him.

"And none of it can be done by us. Get me some red stuff, will ya?"

"That's what he's here for," his assistant said, jerking a stone thumb towards the penguin standing obediently at their side.

"He's spaced out right now, and I'm surely not getting my own damn red stuff, so hop to it!" The assistant sighed and tossed his master a bottle of V-8, which was mysteriously caught by his fingerless flipper. With a faint, astral pop, the cap flew off, hit the ground, and burst like a tiny firework. "Thank you. Now you see, everything is in order, and there's nothing we can do to improve the stiuation… especially since Mothra won't intervene, that lepidopterous hypocritical pile of--" He changed colors rapidly, which evidently meant he was bleeping himself.

"She won't? Isn't she the Guardian of Earth?"

"That's what I thought, but since the Earthlings brought this on themselves, she refuses to help them out of it."

"I could go twist her wing."

"That's always the first thing you suggest."

"It works."

"It didn't work with Ms. Takino and it won't work with Mothra. Still, I shouldn't talk… even my plans don't always quite pan out. For instance, my daughter wasn't supposed to intercede for Godzilla. I'm still not sure why it happened that way."

"Well, didn't that nonexistent schlep you sent say that Biollante was going to destroy the one thing that could protect Earth?"

"Of course not! He doesn't exist! How could he have said anything?"

"You know what I mean… she probably thought that he meant Godzilla."

"Why would she think that? Biollante was trying to eat _her_, too."

"But she doesn't see herself as that important. Might I add that Biollante almost succeeded, and wouldn't that have been embarrassing?"

"Biollante was never close," Chiyo-dad said dismissively. "It was a very interesting and dangerous creature, but it could never have stood a chance…" He paused for effect in spite of the fact that his assistant already knew exactly what he was going to say. "…against a Goddess."

* * *

"This is stupid," Kazuki sulked. "You're gonna get us both killed."

"Shut up and take off that ski-mask," Osamu returned without a hint of anger or impatience. "We'll be fine. Act natural."

"Act natural? There's a natural way to duck under police tape and--?"

"Keep it down!" They walked together towards the dark and silent aquarium, unconsciously matching their stride. Osamu was dressed as theatrically as ever, and since Kazuki didn't own many black clothes, he'd been shoved into one of the taller boy's spare jackets. It was almost the right size, though the sleeves hung past the second joints of his fingers. "We're not doing anything wrong."

"If we're not doing anything wrong, then what's the tape doing there?"

"It's just for our own safety."

"Oh." He was silent until they finally reached the tape and stopped. Incredibly, there didn't seem to be any scientists, military men, special forces or anybody else around. Not even a rent-a-cop (all respect to Sanada's father) or janitor! "Wait… our _own_ safety? And we're…?"

"You have to take risks when the Truth is at stake," Osamu said easily, ducking under the tape. "See? That wasn't hard."

"But what if it's poison or something? Inside, I mean," Kazuki followed reluctantly.

"I didn't see any haz-mat suits, and people were going in and out all day."

"You had this place staked out all day?"

"Well of course! I had to learn if it was poison or something, right?"

They ascended the steps together, and slowly, dramatically, Osamu pushed the door open. The interior was a sea of shadow, utterly silent and still. This first impression exploded when the boys' flashlights stabbed into the room and illuminated the floor.

"Cool!" Kazuki cried, "Hey, guys!"

"Why'd it have to be spiders?" Osamu moaned.

* * *

It was a warm, still night beneath a nearly-full moon that managed to compete with the glow of Tokyo. It was the sort of night that was made to run around outside and do stupid things under the cover of darkness. This was probably why Tomo was having such trouble sleeping.

She lay on the floor, the carpet digging into her cheek, a nice, heavy blanket weighing down on her, the soft breathing of her friends surrounding her. Yomi lay a few feet to her right, curled up so adorably that Tomo had almost woken Chiyo to find a camera… after all, _nobody _gets away with blackmailing the Takinator! Osaka lay awkwardly on her back in the other direction; she didn't seem to be sleeping either. Sakaki's form loomed gigantically just past her, obscuring Sandra, who lay holding a large plush dragon. ("Lay off! It makes me think of home!" she'd snapped before anybody even had the chance to look at her.)

The only people actually sleeping on furniture were Chiyo (because she was the host, after all) and Kagura (Tomo had called the chair, but then foolishly wagered it in their basketball game). _Lousy bourgeoisie! _Tomo grumbled mentally, even though she couldn't define bourgeoisie, let alone spell it.

Restless, she rolled over to face Osaka, and was unpleasantly surprised to see the spacey girl's eyes wide open, staring at the ceiling with a troubled expression. "You're up?" Tomo whispered. "What gives?"

"Night owl," Osaka reminded her, just as softly. "What's your excuse?"

"Dunno. You okay? You don't look so hot."

"Eh," she turned her head away. "Nightmares."

"Of?"

Shrug. "I get the feelin'… it can't last. Us together. Like somethin's gonna… like…"

Tomo's first impulse was to tease her, but then she ran up against the entirely unexpected and unfamiliar feeling that her first impulse wouldn't do at all. She hadn't seen Chiyo the day of Biollante's attack, but judging from the way Sakaki and Osaka were acting, it must have been horrible. And to rewind yet further, Osaka had been the first to encounter the strangeness afoot and the last to recover when the aliens had invaded… given that history, it must've been hard to accept that they were safe now.

There was only one course to take. The Wildcat Idiot reached into her soul, sinking deeper and deeper until at long last she found the mythical, cube-shaped world where Bizarro Tomo lived. _She'd better appreciate this, dammit!_

"Hey," Tomo reached out and took her hand. "Look, it's all over. The monster is dead and we're fine. Nothing's gonna happen to us, Osaka."

"Ya think so?"

"I'd bet my life on it! Absolutely nothing is going to hurt us," Tomo whispered positively, though she unfortunately failed to knock on wood, throw salt over her shoulder or sacrifice a small goat. In response, Osaka gave her hand a squeeze. "I been angstin' all over ya lately, haven' I? Sorry."

"Eh, it's nothing."

_I'm losing my edge!_ Tomo fretted in the darkness. _I gotta find a way to be badass again! I'll… beat Kagura in arm wrestling! No, tried that. I'll… kick Sakaki in the head! No, she's still on edge. I think she'd kill me. Not flexible enough anyway. I'll… steal Sandra's dragon! Aw, man, how is _that_ badass? I _must_ be losing my touch!_

So passed the night.

"Wow, they're all over the place! It's like we're walking on fortune cookies!" Kazuki crowed, "This is amazing!" He ran along one of the corridors, skipping and turning pirouettes. "What do you think they are?"

"Nnnnhehhh," Osamu replied miserably. He saw that they weren't actually spiders, but they were close enough to set off his phobia. Based on the precept of 'know your enemy,' Osamu had done quite a bit of spider research, but he'd never seen arachnids that looked like _this _before.

"They're Precambrian!" Kazuki suddenly called back to him.

"What?" Osamu tore his eyes from the armored swarm beneath his feet with an effort and looked disbelievingly at his coconspirator. "Pre-who?"

"Precambrian, man! Like… from before the time of the dinosaurs!"

"Y'think so?" He remembered now that Kazuki's youthful fascination with dinosaurs had never quite died out. If there were such a thing as Prehistoric Trivial Pursuit, he could go punch-for-punch with any paleontologist. "But, uh, if I remember right, there wasn't any—YAAAGH! GET OFF OF MY LEG!" he flailed and panicked for a few seconds, finally collecting himself and throwing a crescent kick that sent the stowaway on his pantleg flying into a concrete wall. "Uh…" his dark gaze dared Kazuki to laugh. "Anyway, there wasn't any oxygen back then, right? So how would these…?"

_Click_. Yomi's project._ Click_. Micro-oxygen. _Click_. Oxygen Destroyer. _Click. _ Conspiracy. In his thought process, that last link was more of a boilerplate than anything else. "I think… I think we'd better go."

"But these little guys are so cool!" Kazuki protested. "Don't you wanna see if there are any other kinds?"

"Not really. No, I think you were right. On further reflection, this is a _very _stupid idea, and we should go home and let the authorities…" by this point, Kazuki had gone around the corner and let a loud whistle at whatever it was he saw. Drawn unwillingly by his own curiosity and yearning for the Truth, Osamu followed him. "Piece of…!"

They stood at the end of the hall where Sanada's dissolving-shark incident had taken place. It… looked a little different now. Before, only the very lowest of its lengths had been flooded, but now the misty water lapped menacingly at the very top step.

"Smells like a thunderstorm," Osamu observed.

"And a slow, painful death," Kazuki added.

At least he wouldn't try to go wading, which was always a possibility with someone like him. The tiny arachnids scuttled much more thickly here; they couldn't set down their feet without crushing four or five, but the little creatures declined to try climbing on them, much to Osamu's profound relief.

"Aww, look at that," Kazuki said, showing none of his partner's squeamishness as he knelt by the edge of the (was it even really water anymore?). There were a few struggling creatures at the edge of the water, malformed, most with far too many legs. It was almost as if they were trying to… _no,_ Osamu dismissed the notion out of hand to preserve his sanity. "What do you think happened to 'em?"

"What I'm more concerned about is how the water got so deep," Osamu said. "There's a lot more than one tank's worth down there. It's almost as if…"

_T-chink! _That sound effect _wasn't _in his head. Both boys turned as one to see an arachnid, larger than any they'd yet encountered, biting into the Pleixiglas of the tank next to them. The water within started to rush free, flowing down the wall and streaming into the gray soup beside them. _T-chink! Chink!_

"Umm…" Kazuki started, "Maybe we _should_…" Then an armored, knife-like leg the length of a compact car reached out of the evil water and set down between them, striking cracks into the linoleum. He didn't have to finish his sentence.


	10. Revenge!

(A/N: I award a pizza trophy to anybody remembers Honada from the other story. Verily, I bow before your mastery of useless trivia. But if you don't recognize him, well, he doesn't really matter anyway.  
Minor edits to the previous chapter were at the suggestion of Sunder the Gold. Remember folks: if you want it sundered, go for the gold! …wait a second, did that even make sense? I need to work on my dedications.)

THUD!

The conspirators' flight came to a sudden end. Both boys found themselves staggering away from a broad blue wall and then seized by powerful hands at their collars. "What do you think you're doing in here?" a hard baritone voice snapped. "This is a restricted area!"

The wall they'd run up against, of course, was a police officer. The three of them stood in the warped square of light thrown through the reception area's open door, silent except for the boys' ragged breathing and the distant scuttle of chitinous legs. Kazuki raised a finger, "Seeking the Truth!"

"_Where the hell were you?_" Osamu yelled, "We could've been _killed!_ Why weren't you there at the front with a nightstick keeping us from going _in?_"

The officer raised an eyebrow. "I was on the can. Now give me one reason why I shouldn't cuff you two and call your parents?"

"Because we're seekers of the Truth?"

"They only left one officer guarding _THIS? _What kind of a retarded conspiracy have we stumbled on?"

There was a long pause. Only Kazuki noticed that the aquarium building was missing its omnipresent hum, but the officer spoke before he could comment. "Why. Why do I always get the crazy kids? It's never _anybody_ else."

"You're right. That does sound suspicious…"

"Hee! He called you crazy, Osamu."

"What almost killed you then, huh? One of these guys?" The policeman indicated one of the scuttling arachnids on the floor between them, then winced in surprise when both boys screamed and jumped on it, stomping it into a thin paste beneath their sneakers. "Um…"

"You don't even know, man! It was, like, the size of an elephant! Bigger!"

"Yeah, and it had big… _scary… TEETH!_"

They were waved down. "Okay, while I can honestly say you two are the most entertaining thing to happen in a while, I have to… homina…"

"Homina?" Osamu asked uncomprehendingly.

"Yeah," Kazuki explained. "It's like what you say when you see something really… big…" Not wanting to waste the moment, they turned in horror movie slow-motion to observe a massive, shadowy form suspended over the reception desk, turning dully glinting red eyes towards them. When they made eye-contact, it hiss/shriek/squawked at them and started to lower its great body.

"I, uh… think I'll let you off with a warning…" the policeman said, fumbling for his walkie-talkie with one hand while he shooed them away with the other, and the boys wasted not a moment in fleeing. "Honada here. I need a tank. …no, I just _wish _I was joking."

* * *

Golden sunlight fell across Chiyo's face, and for just an instant she felt like an old woman. She sat up slowly, loosing a yawn that would have made Tomo fall before her in worship, stretching spindly, protesting limbs until she heard a crack that would probably come back to haunt her thirty years down the road.

She moved to set her feet on the ground, but they ran up against Mr. Tadakichi's shaggy back. The great dog lifted his head in sleepy confusion. "Always underfoot," Chiyo teased gently, scratching behind his ears until he yawned and lay back down. This time, she carefully stepped over him, then picked her way through her friends, who were still strewn throughout the room.

Ahh… just the sort of gentle, pastel morning she liked. Chiyo caught herself wishing that the day wouldn't have to start so soon. Her solitude would surely be broken before long. She started making breakfast out of reflex, and it was only after eggs were sizzling in the pan before her that she paused to wonder how much she should make.

"Morning," Sakaki said softly in passing. She sat down at the table, not in the expectation of food but merely to keep her company.

"Good morning, Ms. Sakaki! Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah. You?"

"I did, thank you. Yesterday really tired me out. How do you like your eggs?"

"I don't. Thanks, though."

"Oh, that's right… it's _Ms. Osaka_ that likes them with cinnamon and _Ms. Tomo _that… ah, my memory failed me." She shot a glance back at her towering friend. "Um, is something the matter, Ms. Sakaki?"

"Well… I have… I have a question." Her pauses conveyed hesitance, not a sudden William Shatner complex.

"Go ahead," the prodigy said pleasantly, giving the pan a shake. Maybe an omelet…

"Why are you angry with your father?"

Chiyo didn't respond for a long time, working the eggs absent-mindedly, but just when Sakaki was about to withdraw her question, she finally spoke. "Don't worry. I'm just trying to think of a way to phrase it."

"Okay."

"For the longest time, he's been… orange juice?"

"Huh? No thanks."

"He's been playing at corporate espionage, though to be honest he's not really that good at it. I always used to find proprietary documents laying around, about things I preferred to pretend didn't exist. I didn't worry too much about it… I trusted him, you know? He was always so confident, so I trusted that nothing would happen to him and that he'd keep me safe, even after I heard one of his contacts threaten me directly. Are you sure you don't want anything?"

"I'm fine."

"You really ought to eat breakfast…" Chiyo's smile faded as she continued. "I would have been better if it was just me. If I were the only person that was attacked by a giant plant monster, or… oh, by the way, I overheard this while I was pretending to sleep. Did you know that some of my genes were used to make Biollante?"

Sakaki's eyes widened.

"I guess that's how it knew to single me out." Her tone suggested that she found this more upsetting than she let on. "But what if it hadn't? Or what if Father's enemy didn't have such a sick sense of humor? What if he'd decided to get rid of me more conventionally, with a car bomb or something? You all were around me the whole time."

"But…"

"Before the trip, I found out that Yomi's microxygen lab was run by this same person." She wasn't aware of the Ogawa brothers, or how similar their voices were. "He could have hurt or killed her at any time and made it look like an accident. I started to think that maybe I was wrong because he hadn't done anything… but I found out yesterday that when the police went to talk with him, he jumped out of a second-story window to escape. One of his students was injured, too."

"Mr. Ogawa is…?" Sakaki shook her head in disbelief.

"I had a hard time myself. But that's not all… last year, when we went to Sendai to find you and so Ms. Osaka could get to her island—well, you weren't there, but he called me on Tomo's cell phone. He'd had a burst of intuition that told him I was there… and do you know what he did? He sent men from G-Force to find us and get us out of the area! _Knowing _about the giant monsters, alien soldiers and frontier missiles!"

"Isn't that their job?"

"It's their job to help people and oppose the monsters, yes, but it _isn't _their job to go into a warzone and chase down stupid little girls who…! Twelve men, Ms. Sakaki! They nearly died, too, and it would've been because of us! Because of him! He didn't even tell me that he was doing it—I probably would've thought they were invaders and run! It's a microcosm of my whole beef… he doesn't tell me things, and then these things come to hurt my friends!"

Sakaki wondered about her use of the term _beef_, but had more important questions on her mind. "But…"

"I know I'm being irrational. I don't know, I guess being poisoned by a five-hundred-foot-tall long-stemmed blue rose can do that to you. It's just that… sooner or later, his games are going to get someone killed, maybe one of us, and… and I don't know what I'll do then. I'd forgive him if _I'd_ just been dragged into his world of terrorists and giant monsters and what-have-you, but now my friends have, too, and I can't… it's not something I can…" She then turned the pan over, revealing that the horribly overcooked eggs were firmly stuck to its surface. "Oh. Look what I did."

At this point, Sandra entered. She looked like one of the walking dead, dragging the stuffed dragon behind her by its wing. "Hey, all," she said dully. "I smell food."

"Pull up a chair!" Chiyo greeted, grateful for the diversion.

Sandra sat down and cricked her neck. "Had this weird dream about a ten-headed…" But then she was cut off by a long, high-pitched, canine yawn. She turned sharply to stare at Mr. Tadakichi's impressive dental battery until he was done, then cringed in surprise as he plodded forward and set his heavy head in her lap, hoping for some ear-scratchage.

Sandra shot Sakaki a look that cried, '_Help!' _She replied with a look that said, '_It's okay, just ignore him.'_ At the edge of panic, Sandra's eyes hollered, '_Ignore him? This monster has his head in my lap and I'm supposed to _ignore_ him?'_ Sakaki's slight smile said, '_I apologize for finding this so amusing.' _Sandra closed it off with a glare/pout that grumbled '_Yeah, well, why don't you take a long walk out a short airlock?' _so eloquently that Sakaki's eyebrow rose. '_Airlock?'_

Whuffing what must have been dog for, "Jeez, what's your problem?" Mr. Tadakichi moved around the table to get some love from Sakaki, who was only too happy to oblige. "Did I intrude on something?" Sandra finally asked.

"N-not really," Chiyo said. "Thanks for listening, Ms. Sakaki."

"You should forgive him," Sakaki advised. "He's the only father you have."

"I-I will…" the prodigy met her eyes and felt a creeping sensation down her neck. She could normally see through the cobalt wall that was Sakaki's gaze, but this time it was impenetrable. "I will," she continued more firmly. "Yes."

Sandra looked between them, realizing that once again she was completely lost. Oh, well. In spite of what Osaka had said all those days ago, she was getting used to it.

* * *

It was officially a bad day to be a member of SSS9. Yasuhiro had carried through on his threat to crush the organization he had helped form; it only took a few phone calls and the authorities were pressing in on them from every side. Whole branches of SSS9 were lopped of in swift, fell strokes. By the time Mr. Ogawa was called to see his brother, their organization was crippled to the extent of Mihama's knowledge, teetering on the edge of nothing. This call, obviously, did not bode well.

"You, ah, you lost the cape, I see," the junior man said nervously. "Good move, I think. The shadowy overlord bit fits you much better."

"I agree," his brother said in a self-consciously deep voice. The office was barely lit, and even the dim early-morning light through the windows was arranged so that it fell across his broad shoulders but not his face. The effect was only slightly ruined by the swath of flattened carpet that indicated the desk had been intentionally placed for it. "It's much more dignified."

"So, ah… what did you want to see me for? And what—what's that smell? Do you have one of those spring rain aromatherapy candles in here?" At least, that's what the younger Ogawa was desperately hoping.

"I was curious to know if you were still having second thoughts," the senior man said calmly. "Or if you still wanted to work for us."

"Of-of course," the junior man nodded quickly. "I've been feeling better about the whole venture, especially since it turns out that Chiyo's all right. I figure once the world powers see that we can and will make more monsters like that, they'll agree to…"

"Wait, wait, wait, you said that Chiyo's all right?" When his younger brother trailed off and swallowed, the Senior Man smirked. "She couldn't be less all right. She's not twenty-four hours from shuffling off this mortal coil."

"Wh-what?"

"Did you think she'd just get off with a little poisoning?"

"But _why?_"

"Because I want to hurt Mihama in the worst way possible. Over the years of our correspondence, I've grown tired of his threats and his ideals and his constant whining over the ethics of our activities. He has always said that he could break SSS9 if he wanted to, and he gave it his best shot. Now I will prove that I can break _him_."

"But she's just a little girl!"

"So sad. Oh, and I'm hoping to get your favorite student… ah, Mizuhara, was it? in the same go. You really should invest your affection more wisely."

"But… what are you… how… how…?"

"How do I plan to kill them? Well…" Two long, scythe-like claws slid out of the pool of shadow behind him and lit gently on the desk. "I'm sure you've kept abreast of our micro-oxygen project… you probably know the creatures have figured out how to fuse with each other and grow. What might surprise you is that we can still control them, provided we don't let them get _too _big."

"You're going to unleash those… those… _things_ on a bunch of kids?"

"Of course not. They'll be on our leash the whole while."

"But… how _could you?_"

"You're a lot like Mihama, you know that, little brother? You have an amazing capacity to see people the way you want to, rather than the way they are. Know, then, that I am a maniac. I'm about the closest thing this world will ever see to Dr. Doom or Lex Luthor. I am out to make my world-domination omelet, and I don't care who or what I have to break to do so. Do you understand?"

As he spoke, the hideous arachnid climbed over the desk, lifting its body above Lord Ogawa's head and staring at the science teacher with malevolent crimson eyes. "I… I always thought… you were always so…! I'm _out! _I'm not gonna do this, man!"

"I was always so what, exactly? Merciful? Kind? For a teacher, you sure are remarkably stupid. This is your last chance, brother. Little Chiyo's dying in any case… so are you along for the ride with me… or her?"

* * *

"Tomo vs. Kagura, round two: Tomo-chan's revenge!" Tomo announced to the world at large. "Today and today only, you get to see me stomp this meathead into the ground! Yaayy!"

"Yay!" echoed Osaka, once more safely on the sidelines.

"This is stupid," Yomi grumbled. It was too late to change things, however; the battle-lines were set. Kagura had suggested two-on-two for their earth-shattering rematch while simultaneously grabbing Kaori by her arm and dragging her to the "court." Tomo had agreed instantly, and before Yomi could even call her an idiot more than five times, she'd been pressed into service.

It was hoped by the spectators that Ms. Mizuhara's height wouldn't let this become _too _much of a slaughter, but sadly, Tomo's revenge was to be postponed yet again. "You're pretty quick, Kaori!" Kagura commended, "You ever considered trying out?"

"You mean like for the basketball team?" Kaori yelped, honestly shocked. "But I'm no…!"

"Hey, I don't tell people they're talented when they're not. Ms. Kurosawa's been looking for people, an' while I don't think you'd be point-guard right of the bat…"

"Shut up and toss me the rock!" Tomo yelled, "It's still on!"

"Fine, fine." And so their epic duel continued.

"Ms. Tomo seems even more into it this time," Chiyo observed. "Almost like she has something to prove?"

"Doesn't she always?" Sandra asked airily. "Okay, let me see if I got this straight, Osaka. Kagura's the quarterback, and Kaori's the goalie. They start with zero points, which is called 'love,' then get seven points for every goal, but fifteen for a field goal. The game ends when Tomo catches the golden snitch or one of them is pinned for a three-count."

"Yup," Osaka confirmed happily, "You got it."

Sandra stared at the combatants, slack-jawed. "What a stupid game."

"Eh, y'get used to it. Oh, Chiyo's pop is back!" she stood and waved. "Hey, Chiyo's pop!"

Yasuhiro stood stepped out of his modest compact car and waved back uncertainly. He never seemed to know what to do or say when interacting with Osaka; he wasn't alone on that count, of course, but he didn't know how common his problem was. "Er, hi."

His trip had sadly been postponed. His contact had claimed sudden illness, and when he tried to press his case, the flight was cancelled due to a pilot's strike or somesuch. As he left the airport in disgust, one of his junior advisors had happened across him as if by providence and made an interesting suggestion as to how they could recoup the financial losses from rebuilding Mechagodzilla…

Osamu would have seen the obvious. Yasuhiro, on the other hand, had no reason to suspect anything untoward from his trusted employee of eleven years. "So, we need a test group, see if this whole business is as fun and interesting as they're hoping…" he muttered to himself on his way past them.

Chiyo shot an entreating glance to Sakaki, but her friend had become a wall again. Maybe his mistakes had hurt her and her friends, but he'd learned from those mistakes and was trying to help them. Sakaki was right. The young prodigy stood, steeled herself, and then the two of them started after him. "F-father?" Chiyo called.

"Hm?" he turned as they drew near, acting for all the world as if she hadn't been rather cruelly snubbing him since her return. Behind them, he could see Kagura's final victory, as well as the extremely entertaining fit Tomo threw in response.

"Father, I…" Chiyo stumbled over herself. He waited patiently as she tried to wring words out, but all she could manage was to sniff thickly as a tear tracked down her cheek. "I'm very sorry. I need to compose myself," she said finally, and retreated like the wind.

Yasuhiro looked at Sakaki questioningly, who spread her hands.

"Jeez, Andrea!" Tomo yelled, suddenly less than a pace behind her. "What did you _do _to her, huh?"

In truth, all Sakaki did was glance at the Wildcat Idiot, but from her lofty height, with her dark eyes and customarily dire expression, this glance struck with apocalyptic force. Tomo skittered away like a leaf and continued to taunt her from a safe distance. Well, safe from _Sakaki_, anyway…

"Next time why don't--!"

_Whap!_ "Tomo, would you shut up already?" Yomi snapped.

"Well, sor-ee for trying to inject a little life into She-zilla over there…"

* * *

None of her friends saw Chiyo's apology and reconciliation. It was probably a good thing, as this was a profoundly awkward experience for her. After all, how often did such a gentle, polite girl find herself in the position of (passive) aggressor? They spoke in private for some time, and when Chiyo-chan returned to her friends, she was teary-eyed but relieved and happy.

It was twenty minutes or so later that Yasuhiro came to them with a proposition.

"You see, building Mechagodzilla pushed us to the edge of bankruptcy, believe it or not. _Re_building him, in spite of the help we're getting from the government, could ruin us. Some of my employees decided that to help ends meet, we could start giving paid tours of Mechagodzilla's silo."

"Sounds boring," Tomo said frankly. Yomi moved to preemptively clap a hand over her mouth if she started going, "Boring! Booooring!" but fortunately she didn't think to.

"Well, that's what I said, but they reminded me that a lot of kids are into dinosaurs and a lot of others are into giant robots, and he's both. One of the technicians volunteered to conduct it, too; he said that he's good with youngsters and had a few ideas to keep it entertaining…" Yasuhiro paused. "You know, he was kind of smirking when he said it. I hope he doesn't plan to pull a prank on the group or something."

"But isn't all that classified?" Yomi asked.

"Not anymore. The stupid news networks haven't been showing anything but Mechagodzilla since we used him 'round Okinawa."

"So you want us to try it out, then?" Kagura seemed amenable enough.

"Only if you want to," he assured them. "I was going to go through the normal market research bit, but I happened to notice that you were all here. What do you say?"

"It seems interesting to me," Chiyo offered.

"I have to admit," Yomi added, "I'm a little curious to see how it works."

"Me, too." Sandra was unable to keep suspicion out of her voice. Yasuhiro chuckled at her reaction. "Don't worry," he assured her, "We haven't been stealing secrets from your country." She swallowed her gum in panic before realizing that he thought she was from America. "Aheh…"

Sakaki gave an imperceptible shrug and a fractionally greater nod. Why not?

"If you guys say so…" Kaori sounded doubtful.

"Sure, okay," Kagura said.

"Oh, come on, guys," Tomo shook her head. "This is gonna be the driest, lamest…"

"But Tomo," Kagura cut her off, "Mechagodzilla is, what, eight stars worth of carjack, isn't he?"

An evil gleam appeared in her eyes. "I'm in."

That left Osaka. She deliberated a moment longer than the others, mainly because she was Osaka, but also because she noticed another purple doom appear. It was just like the dooms she had imagined around her report card and hovering outside in the storm, but this one was about the size of Biollante and twice as mean. As the girls started to give their assent, it reached up through the ground and closed its terrible clawed hand around all of them.

She grinned. "Sounds like fun t'me!"


	11. Destroyer!

(A/N: It is my hope that this story's climax will prove to be the opposite of the limp, tepid, forty-five minute epic that closes off Godzilla vs. Destroyer. We are getting near to the bitter end.  
By the way, the Purple Dooms are entirely a construct of Osaka's mind—they're like the generic "bad feeling" Star Wars characters always get before everything goes to pieces.)

"Why are we still here?" Kazuki whined. "Why the heck are we _still here?_"

"Quit moaning. We're at least a block away," Osamu was once again leaning on his bench, his coat flowing just as before. Kazuki had shed his and now considered donning the ski mask again; the less that showed he was associated with this maniac, the better. "I want to see what they'll do."

"_Why?_"

"Where's your sense of adventure, man?"

"My sense of—I think even clapping eyes on the friggin' thing was enough adventure for me! Why does it matter what they do?"

"Kazuki, there's a nest of monsters in the middle of our district. I'd say their response matters a great deal."

"Can't you trust them to--?"

"_Trust_ in authority is for dupes and pansies who--!"

"—prefer not to be eaten by five-meter-tall poisonous spiders! I never thought _I'd _have to be the voice of reason, here!" Kazuki shoved his shoulder. "Or ever! Dude! What's gotten into you? You always talked about this sorta crap, but I didn't think you'd risk your life to see what--!"

"I'm not risking my--!"

"Oh, would you just shut up and come away!"

"Look, Kazuki," Osamu splayed his hands. "This isn't like anything we've ever seen… 'cept when that statue of yours came to life. Our approach to life _has_ to change in situations like this, and everybody breaks in different directions."

A trio of black vans rushed past them and screeched to a halt outside of the aquarium building. SWAT-armored Special Forces men dismounted in a flurry and armed themselves from racks in the back of the cars. Their weapons, Osamu could see, weren't the automatic rifles he expected, but strange carbines without apparent magazines.

"Look!" he said, "Those weapons! It's Mihama Industries, I'm sure of it."

"Yeah, yeah," Kazuki said disinterestedly, grabbing his friend's elbow. "We'll hear all about it on the news."

"It'll be filtered!"

"You won't be killed!"

"But I have to--!" before their argument could continue, a horrible shriek slapped into their ears and buzzed through their chests. A creature much like the one they'd seen in the lobby, though somewhat smaller, crashed through the glass outer doors and stumbled down the stairs to the sidewalk.

It seemed that the beast normally had six legs, but only four were working at the moment, dragging it agonizingly across the ground. One of its mantis-like claws punched into the top of a van to haul it upright, wedge-shaped head thrashing as it let another screech.

With a barely audible _snap_, a cyan beam reached out of the building and licked across the top joint of the monster's remaining left-side leg, which broke off and deposited it cruelly on the ground again. Two men emerged from the building and stitched it with their freeze rays (if that was what they were), reducing it to a pile of glassine shards.

The boys stared in absolute shock for a few seconds. "Right-o, then," Osamu finally said, "Time to go, then."

* * *

Mechagodzilla's foot was impressive enough on its own. By accident or design, moving through the maintenance areas, control rooms and storage spaces stacked alongside his scaffold would give visitors that dramatic 'camera-pans-slowly-up-the-body' effect often seen in monster movies and superhero shows.

At the deepest level, alongside his monstrous metallic cuticles, there was naught but the silo entrance, a collection of dusty crates, a metallic spiral stair and a freight elevator. (Built into the side of a mountain, the complex could be entered from its peak or base.) Their guide was tardy for some reason, but only Tomo would've thought to be impatient this soon, and her attention was elsewhere at the moment. "Okay, Kagura," she stage-whispered, "Here's the plan: I'll yell, 'fire!', and you subdue the guards while they're distracted. Then I'll use my mad hotwiring skills to break the lock and…"

"Maybe you should conspire a little more quietly?" Sandra suggested. "I'm pretty sure Mr. Mihama can hear you."

He had. He was chuckling.

"Oh, you're laughing now, you're laughing now, 'Hiro! But just wait! Let's see if you're still laughing when Kagura and I are rampaging through Downtown Tokyo in-!"

"I'm out," Kagura said quickly.

"But Osaka will help me, won't you?" The Space Cadet shrugged amiably. "There you go, ha! You'll never stop the combined mental might of the anti-bonkuras! Our genius will…"

"Honestly, Tomo!" Yomi snapped. "Why would you even _think_ to _try _and do something like that?"

"To see if I could! Duh!"

"But Ms. Tomo," Chiyo put in, "You wouldn't be able to do anything with Mechagodzilla anyway. Control has to launch him before he can even move."

"Jeez, Ms. Know-it-All! We haven't even taken the tour yet!"

"Yeah," Mr. Mihama added, "How _did_ you know that?"

"Well…" It was just _so hard_ not to look when you found something marked "Top Secret" on a coffee table. Chiyo smiled bashfully. "Um, educated guess?"

"Uh huh," he said, voice skeptical but in good humor. The whole secret documents thing was his fault in any case, and at this point it either had to be a joke or a huge, antagonistic rift between them. They both knew which they'd prefer.

"Welcome, girls!" a kindly, reedy voice called. This would be a good description of its owner as well, a tall, thin fellow walking lightly down the spiral staircase to their level. A labcoat, glasses and nearly-white, flyaway hair made him the living embodiment of the stereotypical absentminded professor. "I'm Dr. Elisud, and I'll be your guide today."

_That guy's trouble,_ Osaka decided. For some stupid reason, though, she couldn't bring herself to be _too_ concerned. There was a buoyant feeling within her, the sense that she was protected and that she wasn't—and never would be—alone. And besides, she had to admit to herself that any misgivings she had _could_ just be Osaka being Osaka…

But then Dr. Elisud smiled and she knew all of her worst suspicions were true.

* * *

It is not necessary to go into great detail about the Special Forces foray into the infested aquarium building. They all trooped in and spread out through the building in their neat, professional little formations, all hefting the new Mihama Industries Freezer Lasers (in spite of the name, these weapons had little or nothing to do with the actual process of laser cooling) and staring tensely at their requisite motion sensors.

Gladly, before the constant _pip, pip, pip!_ could drive any of them mad, the Destroyers attacked. For an eternal few minutes it was absolute mayhem, chunks of monster and armored bodies flying this way and that, cyan lasers snapping and flickering against the bizarre purple beams the beasts were spraying from their inner jaws, claws flashing, rifle-stocks clopping, shouted orders, bestial shrieking and some idiot yelling, "Game over, man, game over!"

It quickly became clear that the monsters were far too many and more drastic measures were called for. Dragging their wounded, the Special Forces retreated from the doomed building and stood ready for the next phase of their assault.

* * *

The freight elevator lumbered up its track, its grumble pierced only by the distant clatter of technicians at work and Elisud's droning voice. None of his group was really paying attention; they were busy staring at the gleaming bulk of Mechagodzilla as it was slowly revealed to them. Even Yasuhiro had never seen him close-up before, and he happened to know everything to good doctor was saying anyway.

"Do you smell that?" Kaori asked softly. Sandra turned towards her just as a band of shadow passed over her face, leaving her eyes to gleam faintly in reflected light. For that moment, their color twinged in her memory, but she didn't give it any thought. "Not the oil or metal… it's familiar…"

"Huh," Sandra sniffed the air gamely, but shook her head. "Nope."

"And as for _armament_," Elisud said loudly, instantly gaining Tomo's complete attention, "We managed to cram quite a bit onto him. Chromatic death ray from the mouth, high-power masers in the eyes, rockets launched from the shoulders and hips, energized blades and shock anchors in his forearms and, can't forget this one, the Absolute Zero cannon mounted in his torso."

"Whoa…" Tomo was almost drooling. Unbeknownst to her, Sakaki, Kagura and Yomi all stood poised to restrain her should it prove necessary.

"Does it really bring things to-?" Chiyo started.

Elisud had a good laugh at that. "Ah, somebody thought the old name wasn't dramatic enough. Our prototype only cooled its targets to about negative 200 degrees centigrade, and since it's much larger, this one is less efficient. It comes to about negative 170 centigrade, on average."

Chiyo shivered. He was so _casual_ about it!

"In addition, we can add external armaments, such as heavy arc rocket launchers and forearm-mounted railguns. One of our guys even tried to design a fighter called Garuda that could fuse with Mechagodzilla and increase his power…" their guide shook his head, wondering at the Voltron-esque-ness of it all. "Last I checked, he was demoted and found work as a parking attendant."

"But, uh, if you've already got a giant robot dinosaur," Yomi asked, "Is that really so far-fetched?"

"Yes." Elisud said flatly. The subject was closed.

"I was wonderin'," Osaka commented, staring up at the dread weapon's distant face as it became visible through the metallic forest of its scaffold. "Can he spin his head around to make a force field?" Everybody stared at her. "'cause it seems like it'd be real handy if he could."

"…what?" Elisud finally recovered after a good five-second pause. It was so much _what_ she'd said as it was _how_… for a surreal moment, the notion that a giant robot should be able to generate a force field by spinning its head was so perfectly natural that it seemed odd it had never occurred to him before. The Osaka Effect strikes again! "Er, no."

"Too bad," she said airily, "I got a feeling you might need it."

"Actually, I remember now that one of the junior technicians suggested something like that."

"Oh! So you met my un…?" She was cut off as the elevator crunched to a stop and they started to disembark. Elisud wasted no time, suddenly talking in double-time and shooing them off of the elevator almost frantically. Kaori looked around uneasily; that familiar scent was stronger now, and in fact almost seemed to…

"Welcome to the secondary control level. Here many of Mechagodzilla's less vital functions are monitored and communications with the pilot are maintained. Normally the pilot controls MG remotely from a specialized Osprey we keep nearby, but in emergency, he can also be piloted manually… you can see the entrance there." He raised one long finger to indicate an unremarkable hatch on the robot's side at the end of a narrow catwalk. Yomi tensed, but her best friend/mortal foe showed no inclination to make a sprint for it.

The group filtered down a wide aisle through the middle of the secondary control room; there were only about ten people working at the various consoles. This space had obviously been wrested from the warehouse/workshop that was the rest of the complex with great difficulty, giving it a dark, grimy, informal NASA vibe.

"It's kind of a mess," Elisud apologized, "Since we had to deploy Mechagodzilla so quickly, we didn't have time to arrange a proper control room… Primary Control is even worse. This is the point of the tour where I was supposed to show you the surprise that Daley was talking about when he pitched the tour to you, Mr. Mihama."

Kaori suddenly recognized the scent. With a sharp gasp, she grabbed Sakaki's arm and pulled her a large, jerking step away from the doctor. "It's--!" And a purple beam lashed across the ground where Sakaki would have been, leaving the metal unscathed but filling the air with the reek of ozone.

"I'm very sorry…" Elisud stood aside, "But he knows where my family lives."

"What the hell is this?" Yasuhiro stepped in front of Chiyo and drew a gun from inside of his suit-jacket. Elisud just hung his head and sat down, perhaps hoping for the shot to come. "Where did that beam come from? What-?"

"You'd better put that away," Lord Ogawa admonished, rising. He'd been sitting nondescriptly at one of the consoles that whole time. As he eyed his rival, his hand strayed towards a purple bundle on the console, but he decided that the cape would only make him look silly.

"What… how did you…? But they _caught _you!" Yasuhiro cried.

"They caught my brother, and I've… persuaded him to play along for the time being. I'm sure you wonder why security hasn't dragged me away…" A great spidery/mantis monster climbed down the wall from where it and its cohort had been hiding in the shadows. It took up a position behind him and glowered at the girls hungrily. "You look so baffled, Yasuhiro. I trust you haven't seen a SSS9 org-chart in years. If you did, you'd know that I have hundreds of agents that work for Mihama Industries, some that have since you founded it, in fact. This whole time you've prided yourself in holding the keys to my destruction, but now you see the reverse was true. What is that phrase again…? Ah, yes. As it turns out, all your base are belong to me."

"And now you're going to stand here and gloat?"

"Of course! What's the good of being so devious when nobody knows you are? I've been orchestrating everything! I even arranged the infestation of Destroyers at that aquarium building!"

"But why the aquarium?" Yomi didn't care that she was playing along; it struck her as a dumb first target and she wanted to know why. Too, she'd happened to notice that one of the men watching was edging along the wall; since it seemed his design was against Ogawa, she wanted to make sure he had a chance at it.

"Ample food for the little beasties, enough water for them to make their solution, and a crowd the next day. It was my hope that they wouldn't be discovered until the aquarium was opened again so that there'd be a horrific attack and another blot on your reputation; I even had phony sources lined up to say that Mihama Industries had created the Destroyers to engineer a need for their products. It would've worked, too, if not for you meddling kids!"

Sandra pulled an eyelid down and stuck her tongue out at him. Showing that she was truly a wise and impartial judge, Yomi swatted her just the way she would Tomo.

"I'm very sorry, by the way, Chiyo-chan. The attack on you and your friends was nothing personal. I just needed an effective way to get at your father."

"But _why?_" Chiyo cried. "Why did you have to do any of this? What cause could be worth hurting all these people?"

"Seriously. I want to hear this," her father added. "Whatever it is, it's surely not what we founded SSS9 for. And I warn you, if you say 'world domination' or something like that, I might die laughing."

"World domination!" Ogawa pronounced, then, after an awkward pause, looked at him askance. "Liar."

"It's not as funny as I thought it'd be."

"Well, I have all the aces here. All of the men here are under my thumb and about a dozen Destroyers are clinging to the rafters… whereas you've got your little gun and a gaggle of schoolgirls. I almost feel bad for doing this." He raised his hand. "You… all of you… are going to be _erased_."

"One last question!" Kaori blurted.

He lowered his hand negligently. "Sure."

"Um… how…?" Kaori's eyes fell on the creature behind him. "How did you make 'em so big?"

"Oh, I don't feel like going through the science, but… homina…" Lord Ogawa was just now noticing how inappropriately huge the monster by his side was. Far, far larger than the limit his scientists had set… "How _did_ you get so b-?"

Thinking quickly, Sakaki clapped a hand over Chiyo's eyes. Thus, her only experience of Lord Ogawa's demise was to hear a _whoosh_, a dull _whack!_ and feel a tiny fleck of something wet hitting her cheek. The Destroyer leaned back and spread its claws, looking at the humans as if to say, "Yeah, what?"

"Take cover!" somebody, somewhere yelled. It was sound advice.

* * *

Nine MI Heavy Laser Tanks had been hastily modified with larger versions of the freeze rays when the Destroyers had surfaced, and now they growled down the road towards the infestation. The area had long since been evacuated, of course, so there was no traffic or pedestrians to fall beneath their awesome treads.

The war machines arranged themselves at strategic points around the aquarium building, (it had a large parking lot and a fairly impressive yard to its name, so this was not difficult) and took careful aim. Alongside the lead tank, the Special Forces commander and one of the older technicians watched the proceedings tensely.

"Are they all ready?" the commander asked.

The other man checked his board. "Yup. Hit it."

"Open fire!"

Thick cyan beams lashed out and dug into the sides of the building. Everything they touched was instantly frozen, brick and plaster cracking apart and shattering under the building's weight. The Destroyers suddenly found their haven collapsing on them and started to pour out of the building… which was a huge mistake. Those few that escaped the scything beams from the tanks were taken out by sharpshooters. As the building vanished into a frigid mist, it looked like an absolute rout in the favor of mankind. Unfortunately, the Destroyers were getting a lot better at this whole combining thing…

"Cease fire!" the commander called. "Wait for that mist to clear, then Delta and Bravo teams can go in to mop up. I'll need somebody to—uh." It took a second or two for his mind to process that he was suddenly standing in a shadow. He looked up slowly and observed with strange detachment that a colossal armored leg was arcing up out of the frigid cloud to plunge through the row of buildings across the street, raining debris on his men.

The new monster, the one, true Destroyer, pulled free of the aquarium's remains and shook itself off. A few fast-thinking tank commanders opened fire on it, but their beams didn't do anything. Ignoring them, the Destroyer took an experimental swipe into the air with its wicked claws and shrieked a challenge to the world.

"Whoa…" the technician said, "Now _that's_ what I call cold fusion!"

"Shut up, Kasuga."


	12. Throwdown!

(A/N: I apologize for any awkwardness stemming from the monsters that are attacking the girls and the big meanie that's fighting Godzilla having the same name. I might've called them Destroyeroids or something, but, I mean, come on… Destroyeroids? _Pfft._)

It's possible that Godzilla has his own instinctive reasons for gravitating towards Tokyo, or perhaps he's compelled by a force (somehow) larger than himself, but in either case, the SDF was strangely unsurprised when his head broke through the dark waves of Tokyo bay, declining to set off their expensive sonar network as always. Thick, dark clouds were rolling in with him, but he was oblivious to the dramatic element as he strode ashore and looked around expectantly.

No bright blue lasers flashed out of the city to strike him. No fighters came careening out of the sky to be consumed by his atomic ray. There were no tanks on the waterfront pounding shell after futile shell into his impervious hide. With a grunt that could only signify pleased surprise, the Big G started to head inland, making no particular effort to avoid those unfortunate buildings in his path.

He was dimly curious as to why nothing had attacked him yet; unaware of humans as individual beings, he would never figure out that most of the city had already retreated into the Godzilla shelters or had evacuated due to the advent of _another_ titanic monster. The closest he managed was that perhaps the irritating little creatures that buzzed around his head and peppered him with explosives had been scared off by…

Godzilla stopped in his tracks. He was getting really, really tired of these weird situations he kept finding himself in.

For its part, the Destroyer's whole existence was a weird situation. As soon the tanks were dealt with, it had set out find another concentration of micro-oxygen to feed, articulated legs carrying its hideous body high over the streets. Of course, there was only one other concentration in the whole world… the areas around Tokyo Bay affected by the discharge of the original Oxygen Destroyer, back when it had been used to kill Godzilla in 1954. (The creature that lumbered ashore now was either another of a similar species, miraculously resurrected, or had somehow survived a bath in the most lethal acid mankind's science could devise.)

Its form was still twisting, however, growing as more and more small creatures scuttled up and hopped on. The claws had retreated into its body early on to be replaced by a pair of batlike wings, but before it could take flight they rolled up and thickened to become a pair of arms, then started to split into both. Its churning forest of legs condensed and merged, making its progress awkward and stumbling at times, but its limbs came out of the process with more strength and surety. Always the monster grew, becoming more solid and (amazingly) even uglier as it clambered on.

By the time it stood before Godzilla it had ballooned to nearly 120 meters tall, striding on two powerful legs. In fact, its build was similar to that of the Monster King, though hard and angular, coated in dark brown armor. The wings had bloomed into magnificent, gargoyle-like sails that would never lift its bulk but looked impressive all the same. Its tail wound sinuously out behind it, capped by a twin hooked prongs of bone. A ceratopsian crest spread out around its blunt, vicious face, framing a short, wickedly serrated horn that crackled with deadly energy. This was its final form.

This was… _the_ _Destroyer!_

Godzilla looked the monster up and down, lips curling up around his yellowing fangs. As the black clouds continued their march across the sky, he raised a roar to shake them, a brutal, triumphant bellow whose sentiment was clear: "Now _this_ is more like it!"

* * *

"Did you see what happened to that guy? I didn't see! Is he dead? Is he…?"

"Tomo!" Kagura grabbed her shoulders. "Shut up and calm down!"

"But what should we-? Are they-? What-?"

"_Quiet!_" The Wildcat's mouth snapped shut, but her eyes were still bulging. Kagura groped for something to say that would soothe her. "Look, I don't know what happened to him; the thing knocked him away an' I didn't see where he ended up." While this was true, she didn't think the poor guy's odds were so good. "Look, we're safe here, and I'm sure the others will be fine, an' would you just _keep it together!_"

"Right… right…" Tomo swallowed, "Together… where… where are we?"

"I dunno. It was… an armored door, I didn't think about where we were going."

"But what… what about Yomi? Osaka? Andrea?"

"Who the hell's Andr--? Oh, right. It's fine, Tomo, they're in good hands. Mr. Mihama's lookin' out for them."

"Aw, man, they're screwed, aren't they?"

"Shh… shut up. We've gotta see if there's a way out of the building through here or if we have to wait it out."

"And… and what if the monsters win?"

"Tomo…" Kagura hauled her to her feet. "Just stop. We're safe here."

"Right. Yeah. Safe."

They moved together down the narrow, dark corridor they found themselves in, away from the muffled shrieking and stuttering of small-arms fire. It was much cleaner here than it had been in Secondary Control, but the air was stuffy, and had a certain stale, sealed-in odor to it.

Before either could comment, the girls passed through a threshold and the room's lights sprang to life. "Waugh!" Tomo sprang back into the dark corridor, but then reemerged slowly when she saw that Destroyers weren't springing out of the woodwork and eating Kagura. "What is this…? Wait a second."

There were four seats spaced around the room, all facing a great screen that was at the moment dark. Consoles spread out over the walls and grew from the floor at apparent random; Kagura noticed that the chairs were on tracks and could easily be moved to different sections.

"Kags! Do you have any idea where we are?" Tomo cried, eyes bright and trauma completely forgotten.

"Kags? Since when…?"

"This is… holy shit, we just got eight stars!"

"Eight st…? Oh no! Tomo, we've got to get out of here!"

"Get out of here, hell! Where's the 'on' switch?" The Takinator launched a wild, fruitless search over the banks of consoles, hammering buttons all over the place in search of the one that would launch her _real _rampage.

"Tomo, you moron!" Kagura yelled, "This isn't Gundam! We're not Amuro Ray or Shinji Ikari or whatsisface from Tetsujin 28! Why do you even want to…!"

"Is somebody in there?" a voice crackled through the radio. Tomo wasted no time in hitting a random button on the panel and crowing, "Damn right, there is!"

"You're not coming through," the voice continued. "This is Primary Control… Mechagodzilla's transmitter was damaged and we didn't get around to fixing it, so you won't be able to talk to us. We just know you're there because we can see the systems turning on and off at random. Listen… a giant monster of some kind is attacking Tokyo." The fellow coughed; he never thought he'd have to say _that _and mean it. "We need you to pilot Mechagodzilla."

"All right!" Tomo cried.

"What?" Kagura shrieked. "You're joking! This is mad!"

"Just, uh… I dunno, flip the lights on and off. We'll go one flip yes, two flips no, okay?" They could all but _see_ Control shrug. "We're gonna have to play this by ear. Are you ready?"

"Noooooo!" Kagura jumped on the light toggle and started flipping it back and forth madly. Tomo started her diabolical laugh, which was positively nightmarish with the strobe effect going. "The world is ours, Kags!"

"Wow, look at 'em go!" the guy in Control said to his superior, a woman in her forties. The indicator for the cockpit lights on his screen was flickering like crazy. "They must really be raring to go!"

"I'm glad they're so enthusiastic," she replied dryly. "Launch."

Meanwhile, in the Golden Realm, the Elder One's assistant slapped his stone forehead in disbelief. "And you've been planning this since _when?_" he asked. "Okay, _now _you're just showing off."

Chiyo-dad glowed in self-satisfaction.

* * *

If Secondary Control was a mess before, it was something mystical now. The men and women that had been working there, be they loyal MI employees or SSS9 scum, banded together to defend themselves from the arthropod menace… as effectively as they could, anyway. Fortunately, automatic weapons were present, and those who carried them didn't seem to mind that they were marking themselves out as turncoats by revealing that they'd just happened to bring an OTs-33 to work that day.

Osaka didn't care about automatic pistols or giant crab monsters at the moment; her concern was much more focused. She, Chiyo and Sakaki crouched in a row under a heavy desk/console, huddling together against the horrible clamor. Oddly, it reminded her of the day all those months before when their school had been crammed into the Godzilla shelters, and they three had shared a couch until Tomo crashed through them.

"Chiyo-chan? Chiyo?" Osaka took the tiny girl's shoulder, "Chiyo! Snap outta it!" Chiyo was as white as a sheet, her eyes the size of dinner plates, breathing quickly and shallowly. She didn't respond as her friend waved fingers in front of her eyes, shook her gently, and continued to say her name like a mantra. "Chiyo! Chiyo-chan, please, come back!"

Sakaki leaned out from under their cover, but noticed a streak of blood across the ground right next to her and snapped back. This was not squeamishness; she certainly wasn't afraid of blood, but any sane person would fear the things that had released it. Even with the whole alien abduction thing under her belt, she had no idea what to do.

"Chiyo-chan, please…!" Feeling futility like a knife, Osaka licked a finger and rubbed the frighteningly bright fleck of blood from her friend's cheek—which made her suddenly respond, jerking away with a panicked squeak. "Chiyo! S-sorry!"

At a loss for words, the Space Cadet threw her arms around the smaller girl (wincing from her collarbone's protest, but ignoring it) and pulled her close. Chiyo was shaking like a leaf, which would have been less upsetting if Osaka weren't scared out of her wits herself. What could she say to help Chiyo? What could she do to let her know that…?

_Everything will be fine, mother._

Osaka suddenly smiled. She laughed even. When Chiyo looked up, she held the young prodigy out at arm's length and said, "We're leaving, Chiyo-chan. C'mon." The child's eyes were terrified and uncomprehending, but didn't she protest as Osaka helped her to her feet and took her hand. "Let's go."

Sakaki made to stand and beat her head against the bottom of their cover. "What-? Ayumu! You-!" her protest was cut short when she saw that it had come too late. A Destroyer was suddenly there, howling demonically and descending upon them with unbelievable speed. It hissed with malicious glee as its claw fell towards the two girls, instants from spraying them all over the-

_VOIP!

* * *

_

As the hum and roar of Mechagodzilla being raised for launch filled the air, Yomi considered. There was no panic in her mind, but no serenity either; she tingled, watching herself from a safe distance as her other self searched for a way out of certain death. This was surely no time to freak out.

"Sandra?" she asked calmly, turning to the figure that shared her meager cover. "Do you have a weapon?"

"A… a… a weapon?" Sandra looked about frantically. "I- um, crap- yes, I-" She tried to remove something from her sock, but her hands were shaking too badly to get it. A purple micro-ox ray ripped across the ground in front of them, leaving its distinctive reek in the air and totally breaking her concentration. "Ack! Ahh!"

Yomi easily reached over and plucked the object from her sock—it was a small, rounded weapon of a sort, resembling a hot-glue gun, or one of those toys that shoots bubbles… a prop from a sixties science fiction movie, perhaps. Though she didn't know the name for it, Yomi recognized it as one of the aliens' needle ray projectors. "Where on Earth did you get this?" she asked, not noticing the pun.

"I- um- f-found it." Sandra swallowed. "On the ground."

"Hmm," Yomi said disinterestedly. It had occurred to her that since the monsters smelled so strongly for the solid micro-oxygen solution she'd worked with at the University, their shells must have had a high micro-ox content. And the ridiculously, dangerously easy way you could make the solid solution dissolve into its lethal liquid form?

The Bespectacled One leaned out from under her cover, took aim at one of the room's sprinklers, and fired. _Dew-dew-dew-dew-dew!_ The ceiling next to the sprinkler burst into sparks. There was a brief silence as even the monsters paused to wonder what the beam was and where it had come from, then the fire-alarm went off and the sprinklers rushed to life.

The Destroyers screamed in agony and staggered, steam rising from their armored bodies in great stinking clouds. Of course, if it were _that _easy, the SDF wouldn't have bothered with expensive freeze-rays. The monsters recovered quickly, but now, instead of just skipping off of their armor or becoming uselessly lodged, the bullets blew gushing chunks out of them. The tide, it seemed, had turned.

Yomi looked down at the projector. She didn't really feel sure of herself enough to try Rambo-ing her way out, but there was nothing to be gained by staying crammed under this desk. What to do, then? Tactical espionage action? "We should probably get moving."

"How the heck are you so on top of things?" Sandra wailed.

"I've been through worse."

"You liar."

"I'll tell you about it sometime."

* * *

In spite of the obvious language gap between them, both monsters seemed to have the same idea, and without further ado, their titanic bodies collided with a meaty boom the likes of which had never been heard. The Monster King's irradiated muscles strained against the freakish alien sinew of his larger foe, his tail raising billowing clouds of debris to be sodden and driven to the ground by the sudden downpour.

The Destroyer shoved him away and raked its serrated claws across his chest, raising a shower of sparks and a thin film of pale green blood. Godzilla responded by giving it a haymaker that would've made John Wayne proud, sending a fang the size of an Amtrak car spinning into the dark sky.

The rain did not have the same effect on this mightier beast than it would have on the creatures that made it up. Destroyer's shell had hardened, and the micro-ox content had dissolved from the outer layers… thus, it didn't shatter when Godzilla's next punch plunged a few meters into its solar plexus area, which didn't have nearly the effect the he was hoping for.

Clawed hands closed around the sides of Godzilla's head, and before he could react a purple torrent of energy was pouring over him. He yowled and raised his hands to protect his face as the hateful beam played over him. The strange wounds it left were not quite ulcers, burns nor anything else that conventional medical science would have a name for. (But we all know how much use the big guy has for medical science.)

Godzilla grabbed his foe's throat and bulled forward, choking the beam off. The brute dimly remembered this tactic being used against him by Biollante, and truly enjoyed getting to be on the other end of it. Destroyer grabbed at his wrist with both hands, but a sweep of the Saurian's other arm knocked his grip away. Just as a foam of gray, cloudy blood rose from its gullet, though, the larger monster's tail came into play.

The twin spikes closed together around Godzilla's ankle like a claw and jerked the Monster King off of his feet. Destroyer stepped on his chest and loosed another horrible micro-ox ray, making the ground about them burst into strangely glowing cinders. Godzilla's atomic death ray answered, the thick beam snapping angrily across Destroyer's chest and forcing it a crucial step backwards.

At this point, Mechagodzilla made his appearance. He had been approaching for some time, in fact, but it was slow going and he was just now coming close enough to be significant. Unlike during his terrifying performance against Biollante, he moved awkwardly… robotically, almost.

Godzilla rolled out of under the Precambrian monster and planted huge hands on the tortured pavement, collecting himself to rise. The Destroyer turned to face this newcomer, uncertain of what to make of a moving thing that didn't smell like food. Its uncertainty lasted right up until the moment that the railguns on MG's forearms started pounding away, knocking chunks out of its armor.

Destroyer marched painfully into volley after volley of super high velocity rounds while the mechanical monster backpedaled slowly, moving as though it couldn't concentrate on more than one thing at a time. Ironically, for all the lethal weaponry crammed into his body, it seemed that Mechagodzilla couldn't walk and chew gun at the same time.

But before the Destroyer reached him, he demonstrated a new trick—the Chromatic Death Ray leapt from his gleaming jaws, flashing red, then yellow, then green, then blue before slamming into the Destroyer and making it jerk to the side, wings beating to hold its balance.

The micro-ox ray struck back, making a pretty light show on its armor but otherwise having no effect. At this point, inexperienced pilots might have become cocky… and let's be honest, considering who's in there, we can be sure they were… but you don't go through millions of years of evolution in just a few minutes just to get blown up by a rainbow.

Arc missiles streaked from the heavy pack affixed to Mechagodzilla's back, rushing in wide semicircles to converge on the Destroyer and engulf it in an unbelievable gout of flame. The wall of smoke that resulted, coupled with the mist and rain, totally obscured the fact that the Destroyer was hardly fazed, and _right on top of them!_

_BLANG! _Mechagodzilla was knocked off of his feet, skidding like a 95 billion dollar toboggan through a nice little residential area. He automatically moved to right himself, firing more railgun rounds to slow down the living monster. The Chromatic Death Ray rasped over its armored skin once again, but didn't even leave a mark.

Energy danced blindingly around Destroyer's horn, then leapt out in a crescent shape as it twisted its head bull-like and brought the horn down like a sword. Mechagodzilla lurched back stiffly, almost falling again even as another huge, glowing sweep knocked him to the side.

At this point, a miracle came. The crazy mechanics of Mihama Industries had somehow managed to duct tape the totaled Osprey together. In spite of the fact that it was barely able to fly, the VTOL looked grand and heroic as it swooped down a couple of kilometers away and hovered where its crew could see the struggling monsters. MG's proper pilot flexed his fingers over the controls as word went to his stand-ins.

Mechagodzilla's escape capsule popped free and shot away unnoticed, bearing his unfortunate proxy commanders to a distant corner of empty Tokyo. Empty, that is, except for the Destroyer's brood!


	13. Sundered!

(A/N: Behold, the "three chapters worth of monsters kicking the crap out of each other condensed into one chapter" chapter! If your eyes start to glaze over, I apologize sincerely. I suppose I could also call this the "long monologue though mortally wounded" chapter. Or maybe the "what the heck happened to Kaori?" chapter. Hmm…)

Of course, Mr. Mihama's very first thought was to see to the safety of his daughter. It was too bad that his very first thought finally came after so much had happened; he'd entirely lost track of the girls in the choking clouds of Destroyer by-product, and two of the creatures were closing in on him at that moment.

James Bond he was not. To be honest, he'd been to the range once or twice with friends, but he'd never fired a gun at a moving target even to hunt… Zatoichi probably could have outshot him just then. Nevertheless, the attackers were big targets. _BLAM, BLAM, BLAM!_ Though he didn't manage to take them down, both were persuaded to find other targets and he had a moment to think… until a purple beam gouged across the floor at his feet and he had to totally face-plant to avoid it.

_Chiyo,_ he thought frantically, _I've got to make sure she's al…!_

His brain froze. As he started to rise, he saw his daughter and one of her friends (Tomo? No… the hyper one? _It didn't matter!_) slowly walking hand-in-hand as if in a daze, serenely oblivious to the carnage around them. But bony claws were falling towards their fragile bodies; a Destroyer had emerged from the mist behind them and its shriek filled his whole universe. Mihama's gun rose but he was moving through water and he would never get off a shot before…

_VOIP!_

Then a flaming pink arc was burned into his vision and the Destroyer was tumbling away, geysering misty gray blood from its throat and chest, to crumple over backwards, legs flailing in the air. The girls continued on their blissful way, giving no sign that they'd even noticed the monster's attack. Sakaki followed behind them, every bit as baffled as Mr. Mihama; their eyes met and she spread her hands—then they both remembered that they were in a warzone and got moving again.

_VOIP!_ Another Destroyer plunged to the ground, missing most of its limbs.

_VOIP! _Yet another found its torso opened and its head gone.

There was a vague, flickering form warding Chiyo and her friend, something with big, fluttering wings and jewel-like eyes. Mihama realized that, against all reason, his daughter was safer than he could ever make her, and that he should really forget about her and see to himself just now. Not that he ever _would_, but still.

"You're doin' good, Chiyo-chan, doin' good…" Osaka murmured, "Stay with me, just stay with me and you'll be okay…" A purple beam danced and snarled about their feet but didn't touch them. "Just stay close…"

_VOIP!_ A pair of claws tumbled through the air above them.

_VOIP!_ A Destroyer retreated, thrashing at the air about its ruined eyes.

Only one creature stood between them and the ground-level entrance. Claws the size of small cars rasped together hungrily as enormous crimson eyes lit on the approaching girls. Nightmarishly huge, filling the room before them, the beast swept forth, the clatter of its advance drowning out the battle behind them while its honking bellow rattled their bones.

"Sure…" Osaka said dreamily, "Take as much as ya need…"

With that, she let go of Chiyo's hand and stepped forward into it… and who could describe what happened next? Chiyo screamed and stumbled back into Sakaki as the room before them seemed to explode, orange blades flashing in a lethal tornado and chunks of chitinous armor thundering to the ground in a single, titanic gush of gray blood.

When it was all over, Osaka stood giggling dazedly in the midst of a sea of acidic Destroyer guts, which had thoughtfully parted so that she could collapse unburned. Wasting no time, Sakaki picked her way through the hissing mess and scooped Osaka up, the thought rising unbidden that all this practice handling fragile, injured little creatures was probably helping her practice for her future career.

"Is she okay?" Chiyo asked anxiously at her elbow. Though she'd looked dead for a moment, Osaka was breathing slowly, fast asleep.

But just as the three of them were going to make their escape, they found something even worse than the Destroyer blocking their path. He was propped up on the edge of the doorframe, bleeding hideously but very much alive. Every other part of him was shuddering, but his gun glared at them steadily. "It's not going to be _that_ easy, girls!" Lord Ogawa hissed.

* * *

As she fell, Osaka was entirely unsurprised to feel the universe twist about her to put the ground once more beneath her suddenly bare feet. The sort of loose, comfortable, but formal dress she found herself wearing for Shobijin calls settled around her, this time pale red. Gathra, once more a chibi baby bug, settled atop her head and stretched out his wings to enjoy the bright, idyllic sun that smiled down at them. 

"The beach again," she sighed, "They're runnin' outta ideas."

"Sad but true," the Shobijin admitted, standing atop a largish white boulder before her. Great wings pounded the air behind her, but instead of just making a pass as they usually did, they held position. Mothra was personally invested in this encounter. Not good.

"So what's goin' on?" Osaka asked easily.

"The problem is not with you," the Shobijin said in perfect unison, "But your son. We see now that he takes his filial duties too seriously."

"What?" The bug in her hair stiffened.

"This is a conflict that you humans have brought upon yourselves. It is a conflict that the world's guardians have no place interceding in for any reason, even to protect an individual they care about." The left Shobijin looked apologetic as they both continued. "It is Mothra's duty to protect the Earth against menaces from beyond, not its own inhabitants."

"But… but I woulda…" Osaka protested.

"Even if you had been killed, it would have been ours only to watch and mourn. The forms we follow exist for a reason and if they were disregarded, your world would not be the only one to burn. Your son has broken these forms, and we must deal with him before order disintegrates."

"What are you gonna do to him?" she asked frantically, clutching the fuzzy creature to her breast. "You're not gonna hurt him, are you?"

"_Neither of you will be harmed,_" Mothra said. Showing how detached, cool and on top of things she was, Osaka gave a cry of shock and had to physically stop herself from trying to hide behind the Shobijin's rock. She sat heavily in the sand and stared up at Mothra, who was… who was…

Now, Gathra was impressive in his way, and had quite a job protecting the Earth, but it was obvious who the true Guardian of Earth was when you stood beneath Mothra. She looked impossibly vast but her presence was even greater, giving the impression that there was a planet was hanging twenty meters above Osaka's head, bright and beautiful and monstrous all at the same time.

"_You must forget,_" the greater moth told her, "_The world will remember that you bore the egg and your friends will know that you saved them, but you will never know the connection that you once had. As your son, there is no hope that he will keep his place._"

"You mean I'll never know…" Osaka looked down at the creature in her arms and then up at the Goddess of Infant Island, tears gathering in the corners of her eyes. "How is _that_ not being harmed? He's… he's my…"

The mighty moth was at once sad and sympathetic, implacable and merciless as it descended with deceptive gentleness towards her. "_Not anymore._"

Osaka hung her head and braced herself for she knew not what. Gathra looked up at her and pressed his wooly face into hers, and as dark brown eyes met glittering blue while the world seemed to blur together and swirl down the drain around them, Osaka realized that neither of them would ever forget.

"Not _really._"

* * *

Sakaki stepped in front of Chiyo, trying to figure out how she herself could avoid using Osaka as a shield. The terrorist overlord lurched off of the doorframe and shambled towards them unsteadily, chuckling. "How touching, your concern for your friends. You are truly pathetic, Andrea Nanashi Sakaki… get out of my way!" 

"No."

"I could kill you instead, or Ms. Kasuga there, it's really all the same to me," the gun moved in a small, neat circle, taking them all in, "With your sort… I could destroy you by shooting any one of you. Such miserable attachment! Don't you realize that all it gets you is weakness and pain?"

"Y-you're wrong…"

"I've made it my business, destroying people. Not killing them, that's too easy, but destroying them inside and out. Long enough in my business and you see every attachment as a weakness. You're not impressing anybody, Sakaki. Move it or I'll kill all three of you!" After a brief pause, he said, "Ahh, thank you. _Somebody's_ being reasonable."

Sakaki realized with a stab of terror that Chiyo had stepped out of behind her and now stood, trembling but unyielding, with her eyes closed. "Chiyo, what-?"

Then Mr. Mihama tackled the man sideways, the gun barking uselessly into the ceiling, and they were both gone in the mist. Sakaki didn't waste this god-given opportunity, but as she took off, she noticed Chiyo still staring after her father. "Chiyo-chan!"

"But he-!"

"Please!" That almost nonsensical exchange had the desired effect, though, and the younger girl finally followed her to (relative) safety. And what of her father? Well, Lord Ogawa was mortally wounded already, so it wasn't much of a fight… but the fury of a protective parent had Mihama trying to make a fight of it.

"Why _is_ all of this! It can't be world domination! That's laughable!" Yasuhiro snarled, resting his knee on the other man's chest and bearing down on him. "You would _never_ want to rule anything but your sick little cabals!"

"It would be laughable, yes," Ogawa choked, "If I were taking the world for myself."

"What?"

"Always underestimating me, Yasuhiro! And look where it's landed you… your poor little daughter and all her friends in a warzone, your corporation full of spies and cutthroats, the world plagued by giant monsters… heh ha… you always underestimate me…"

"What are you talking about?"

"You can think of SSS9 as a… as a contractor. And we've done our part… I just wanted to be the one… to get rid of you…" his head lolled to the side. "Looks like I've failed at that. Heh… enjoy the world without SSS9… while it lasts…" Yasuhrio stood slowly, seeing that Ogawa was in his last throes. "And don't think that they're any safer outside… the Destroyers are everywhere."

_That_ got Mihama moving. Still, there were no illusions that Ogawa used this diversion to throw down a smoke bomb and escape to his evil lair. He was gone.

* * *

"That was friggin' AWESOME! That was… that was better than awesome, that was… c'mon, back me up here, Kags…" Tomo exulted. 

"If you call me Kags one more time," Kagura replied flatly, "I will tear your throat out and pour a bottle of after-shave down the ragged wound."

Tomo looked at her for a long moment and saw absolutely no indication that her erstwhile copilot was kidding. "Fine. Sheesh."

The two girls sat in the open hatch of the Mechagodzilla escape craft—an unpowered glider, launched by explosive charges but thereafter doing nothing to call attention to itself. The light metallic frame had borne them to a distant corner of Tokyo, far enough away so that the thunder of distant battle sounded much less immediate than the easing rain's patter on the titanium wing above them and the harsh gurgle of water rushing down the streetside drains.

The city about them was eerily empty, oppressed by the dark sky and aura of menace Destroyer's remote presence gave it. Or perhaps, Kagura reflected nervously, remembering the smaller beasts that had attacked them, it wasn't so remote. "Tomo, whaddaya say we go back in and bolt the hatch shut?"

"Why? There's nobody around."

"I'm not worried 'bout people," she stood slowly, searching the buildings across from them with eagle eyes. "But if there's a big monster like that, how do we know that there aren't more little ones?"

"I tell ya what, Kagura, you weren't always such a stick-in-the-mud," Tomo groused. "Can't you even be happy that we got to kick giant monster ass?"

"We would've kicked a lot more if you knew your left from your right!" Kagura replied testily. "It would've been nice to get those shock anchor thingies into him!"

"Well maybe if you had stopped yelling, I would've been able to think straight for five seconds!"

"You can never think straight, Tomo!"

"Neither can you!"

"That's not the point!" Like most of their arguments, though, this one fizzled out pretty quickly. Kagura paced in a small circle in front of her, looking around the eerily deserted street. "I'm really starting to feel nervous, y'know? It'd probably be a good idea to get under some co- _GLURK!_"

That last came as a knife-like leg plunged into her side and bore her heavily to the ground. A Destroyer, smaller than most of its brethren but plenty large for our heroines' purposes, scuttled heavily down over the glider, keeping the athlete pinned with one leg. It hissed softly to itself as it regarded its new catch; what it could be thinking about, neither wanted to know.

At this point, Tomo did something completely surprising. "Hey, ugly!" she cried, standing heroically, "Over here!" When it actually turned its malevolent gaze towards her, though, she did something much less surprising and fainted dead away. Kagura winced at the sound of her head on the pavement in spite of the fact that there was a big bony knife in her gut.

"You think this makes you tough?" Kagura growled, not wanting her last word to be 'GLURK!' "You think you're tough? Well," she paused to swallow something that tasted metallic, "Well I'm gonna come back in my giant robot, an' stomp you flat, how ya like that, huh? Yeah, I'm talking to you!"

The monster leaned down and shrieked in her face, unsheathing its inner jaw. Now, the smell of micro-oxygen has already been described; let it be known that in the case of the Destroyers, it was their armor that smelled like ionization, while the "slow, painful death" part was mostly in their breath. Kagura gagged, unable to continue her tirade. "Well? What… are… you waiting for?"

Then a cyan beam licked across the side of its face and that clichéd inner jaw shattered as its mouth snapped shut. It tried to retreat, wrenching its leg out of Kagura's side as beam after beam stabbed into it, each giving her more cathartic joy than the last. She sat up slowly as the SDF men formed a perimeter around the girls and a medic rushed to her side.

Too adrenalized and giddy to care about a little thing like internal bleeding, Kagura happily babbled to the affable medic, a solid-looking woman with short hair. "Weirdest thing, ever, lady, I'm telling you! I didn't get scared or anything! I thought that I'd start crying or something, but instead it just made me mad!"

"That can come in handy," the other agreed, going into her first-aid kit. "It proves you're a fighter. Not like your friend over there."

"Is she okay?" Kagura swiped at the trickle of blood from the corner of her mouth, then looked at it in mounting horror. "Um… I… I'm bleeding inside, aren't I?"

"Er, yeah. Am I gonna have to sedate you?"

Kagura weighed the possible embarrassment against the knowledge that she'd nearly been run through by an eight-foot arthropod. "Probably," she agreed weakly.

* * *

Tomo had been loathe to leave Mechagodzilla when Control had informed them that the pilot was en route. "Oh, come _on_," she'd argued as Kagura dragged her away from the controls, "It's just like a video game! How much better could he do than us?" 

The answer was forthcoming, though neither of them was conscious to see it. And sadly, the contract regarding pay-per-view had fallen through yet again, so the only record of Mechagodzilla's second whooping was grainy, jittery news footage shot from an allegedly safe distance.

It was clear to all observing that a new intelligence was in command of the mechanical monster (or, as many joked, an intelligence _at all_) as it backpedaled smoothly away from the Destroyer, stepping around some miraculously standing department stores. The micro-oxygen monster, not understanding why its foe was backing off, took one thunderous step after it—and got an atomic ray right in the face.

Godzilla hurled his tremendous body through the air and came down on Destroyer's side, digging his stubby claws into the larger monster's rough armor. Bleating and growling angrily, Destroyer stumbled under his weight and fell, doing its best to grapple what seemed to be a sixty-thousand ton wolverine.

Mechagodzilla's pilot (and the rest of the four-person crew that made sure the space titanium titan didn't trip over his own feet) watched tensely; it would be best not to fight both at once, after all. The Harrier shifted to get a better vantage, scattering the swarm of news choppers that had gathered.

An unfortunate thing happened for both living monsters, then. One of Godzilla's terrific blows actually broke through Destroyer's carapace, plunging his reptilian fist into the thing's freakish anatomy and coating it with the same horrifying acid that had killed his predecessor (or that he had once survived; either theory holds.)

The Big G snapped right out of his primal fury and was suddenly in self-preservation mode. He struggled to rise from his foe, but Destroyer had seen the Godzilla's anguish and held his arm in the wound sadistically, seeming to relish in the lethal hiss. In a full-on panic, Godzilla let him have an atomic ray point-blank and both beasts' heads seemed to vanish in the blue conflagration.

Destroyer's clawed tail arced over both of them and grasped the back of Godzilla's neck, flinging him away with savage force. Though wounded, Destroyer still had plenty of fight left in it. This seemed unfair to all watching; had its insides not been the most dreadful biological agent ever devised, Godzilla would have torn it apart by now.

"You know," the pilot said, "We saw that the heavy weapons didn't work that well. How much power did whoever-it-was leave us?"

"Eighty-seven percent," their engineering specialist reported. It was generally agreed that she had the hardest job; whereas the pilot got to do the fun part and the other two only dealt with emergencies as they arose, she had to be on the ball every second that MG was operational. "We can use Absolute Zero as long as it stays above sixty."

"Okay, then! In that case, who needs this shit?" The railguns and arc-missile pack disengaged from Mechagodzilla and crashed heavily to the ground; all that was visible through the resulting dust was the flashing arcs of MG's power blades engaging.

Destroyer fired a micro-ox ray. Mechagodzilla _ducked_.

Boosters in its legs and back firing, the mechanical marvel streaked under the ray and slashed across his foe's chest, opening the wound yet further. The laser horn crackled, but its sweep was parried by the other power blade. Moving faster than it seemed possible for something so vast, Mechagodzilla turned that move into a thrust through the Destroyer's throat while the other blade hacked across its knees.

Shock anchors burst from MG's forearms and buried themselves in the freshly opened wounds, pumping obscene voltage through already tortured flesh. Destroyer tried to pull back, but Mechagodzilla held its position and the anchors kept them tethered together.

"We're below seventy. Turn off those anchors or something!" the engineer snapped. "We won't have enough power to fight both of them!"

"We won't have to," the pilot said confidently, "Godzilla will leave when this is over. Ready Absolute Zero."

"What? You can't mean…" but then she grumbled and started the dread weapon warming up. "You'd better be right."

Destroyer stopped trying to pull against the anchors and thundered forth, throwing a mighty fist into Mechagodzilla's face. Its metallic foe didn't resist as it pounded the crap out of him, denting sheets of pure space titanium and cracking the Absolute Zero cannon's diamond lenses.

"Ready," the engineer announced calmly. "Give the word."

Mechagodzilla suddenly grabbed his foe in a bear-hug and fired his thrusters, sending both creatures skidding out over Tokyo Bay. A purple beam streaked over his shoulder and scattered the news choppers afresh, though thankfully none were struck. Just as their speed started to give out and their weight hit the water fully, the word was given.

"Fire!"

Absolute Zero engulfed both combatants in a blast that would change Tokyo's weather for months. Nearly all of the heat abruptly fled a three-hundred-meter radius about them, flash-freezing thousands of gallons of water. The splash of their impact became a mighty transparent statue, glittering in the rays of a sun just now peeking from behind the black overcast. Mechagodzilla broke free and sank into the darkness, inert.

Godzilla rose and cast about furiously for his foe, keeping his burnt arm clutched against his chest. He seemed frustrated when it turned out that no monster was presenting itself, though some spectators thought that he also looked a little relieved, as well. As the pilot had predicted, he started to lumber back towards the ocean, clearly anticipating the lasers that had driven him away from Tokyo on his last visit.

Then the unthinkable happened. The Destroyer burst from its icy tomb, even larger and more hideous than before! Its grand wings spread in the frigid air as it shrieked a challenge to the Monster King. Godzilla was only to happy to roar back, forgetting all of his misgivings as he charged towards the iceberg and its loathsome passenger.

The micro-oxygen beam lashed across his body, completely ignored as he plunged into the dark waves and knifed through the deep towards his nemesis. He had reached that sublime state beyond enraged, a degree of emotion that the word "anger" simply fails to describe. His thoughts were smooth, clear and entirely aimed at one simple goal.

As he hauled himself up onto the ice, Destroyer tried to step on his hands and knock him away, but Godzilla was having absolutely _none _of that. He backhanded the enormous creature with his injured arm, freeing three or four more wickedly pointed teeth to splash into the bay.

He stood and Destroyer pushed into him, trying to burn him with the slick gray blood that now coated its armored body. Godzilla met him happily and ignored the violent hiss that rose, wrestling his larger foe to the ice and loosing one final atomic ray, an apocalyptic blast of bright cherry-red energy that plunged effortlessly through Destroyer's chest and the leagues of water beneath them. Both monsters fell into a clear cylinder flash-vaporized into the bay (the iceberg found out what happened to a snowball in Hell), which clapped shut over them as the water rushed to reclaim its place.

The water bubbled and churned as Destroyer dissolved, turning a great patch of the bay into vile anti-life much as Dr. Serizawa's weapon had done way back in 1954. Of Godzilla, there was no sign. Had he escaped the fate of his predecessor? Had he cheated death yet one more time? Or were his bones even now settling on the floor of Tokyo Bay?

These were questions for later, and not our concern.


	14. Peace?

The ocean was bright crystal blue, peaceful under a pale sky and blazing sun. Summer had finally arrived in full force, and it was now officially a crime to wallow in despair, melancholy or any other kind of angst. Accordingly, the girls made plans to finish the summer-home visit that had been so rudely interrupted.

Of course, they couldn't do it immediately after their narrow escape, for not only were four of them recovering from injuries but the summer home needed to do a little recovering of its own. The swarm of useless scientist and military types that had descended on it during Biollante's visit had not been kind to it; for instance, General Kita had eaten the last of the avocado dip, and Doctor Mifune had succeeded where Tomo had failed by finding Mr. Mihama's hidden liquor cabinet. They'd behaved much like the suitors of Penelope until forcibly evicted about two minutes after Biollante's disappearance.

But now the home had been set to rights and the girls had returned.

"Yeeahh! The ocean!" Tomo cried, rushing down the beach, sending her clothes fluttering away to reveal her swimsuit and plunging into the water like a porpoise.

"Tomo, you just ate, you idiot!" Yomi hollered after her, "You're gonna cr-!"

"I'm not gonna cramp up, you fool! I'm invinci-AAAARRRRGHH!"

The others were content to take their time. Osaka advanced tentatively, arms crossed self-consciously over her chest, until Yomi said, "Oh, don't worry. You're still in Chiyo-chan's group," in a tone that was either kind or snarky, nobody could tell. "Yayy!" Osaka cried, "I'm not a traitor!"

"Says you!" Tomo countered shrilly, furiously trying to rub her cramp out.

Sakaki sat in the sand and watched the Bonkuras splashing and capering, smiling as Tomo and Kagura turned this innocent frolic into a splash-fight so epic as to make Godzilla's battle look like a respectful debate.

"It hardly seems real, doesn't it?" Chiyo asked softly by her side. Though she was starting to bounce back from her ordeal, it would still be some time before it was safe to let Mrs. Mizuhara or that bossy lunch lady from school see her; either would be likely to toss her down in front of about four meals and glower over her until she'd eaten it all.

"No," Sakaki agreed softly.

"On the other hand," Chiyo sat down and hugged her knees. "You could look at it the other way and say that that whole awful experience was a dream."

"Which do you prefer?"

"I really don't know. I don't think about life in these terms usually, but things have been so surreal lately…" Chiyo laughed. "In the end I don't think it matters that much. We're through it and we're all still together, right?"

"Yeah." Sakaki liked that outlook.

"Very pragmatic of you, Chiyo-chan," Yomi commented, thrusting a beach umbrella into the sand next to them. She'd brought her book, wanting to find out what happened to her tragically doomed samurai and not feeling too rambunctious anyway. "That's good."

"Is something wrong, Ms. Yomi?"

"Oh, not really," Yomi flipped the book open on her lap. "Nothing to worry about."

"Mm…" Chiyo glanced at her oddly, but was too polite to press on. It was perhaps for the best, as Yomi really meant it when she said it was nothing to worry about. She just occasionally caught herself thinking about how much this whole business with the giant monsters had warped her outlook, how unnatural, disruptive and… _contrived_ those events seemed in the flow of her life. And now after surviving the assault of King Ghidora and helping to halt an invasion of killer arachnids, would she have to go back to worrying over her weight and what college she'd end up in? Though it felt like she was looking at life through a whole new lens, these things weren't any less important…

"What are ya two so riled about?" Osaka asked lightly, coming across her fellow Bonkuras locked in watery mortal combat. "'Part from the usual, I mean."

"Let's make her judge!" Tomo suggested.

"Okay," Kagura nodded sharply. "Osaka! Which one of our scars do you think is gnarlier?"

"Huh?"

Both of the competitors turned to bare their scars, which were visible since they were wearing two-pieces. Tomo's old needle-ray scar was an extremely faint octopus of weirdly curving lines on her side, crawling not quite up to her shortribs and down out of sight on her hip. Kagura's was more visible, a single, jagged crescent that would hopefully fade with time because it was pretty darn unsettling to look at just now.

Osaka giggled. "So ya got your alien ray gun scar, an' you got your giant spider claw scar…isn't that jus' so jacked up? I mean, who'da thought we'd ever get shot at by _aliens?_ An' the spider monsters? Man, tha's just pushin' it!"

"Well?" Kagura prodded.

"Um… huh, well… I dunno if ya'd call 'em gnarly…" she was tempted to go with Tomo's because Kagura was less likely to try and beat her up upon losing, but either one was a dangerous choice. "I don't think either…"

"What, do you think _you_ have a cooler scar?" Tomo challenged.

"Yeah, I'd like to see you try and beat _this_!" Kagura added.

"Actually… I don't got any scars anywhere. Not a one. Wouldja guys help me work on that?"

"For sure!" Tomo cried. "You can count on us!" She already had four plans in mind, and two of them involved Kagura's car.

Kagura blinked. "Um… sure, I guess."

Osaka took advantage of this brief 'e-e-e-er' pause to wander away before they could drag her back into their dispute. She lay on her back and paddled gently through the salty waves, for once not losing herself in thought but just emptying her head and passively enjoying the day. "Aaaaah…"

It felt good to be totally at peace with herself and the universe, floating along in sublime serenity, but the more she thought about it, the more there seemed to be a hole in her happiness. Something like… food. Ah, yes, it was about lunch time. She turned her head lazily to look up and down the beach. A couple hundred meters away, their indefatigable chaperones, Mr. and Mrs. Mihama, were resting on the beach, apparently asleep. Chiyo was stretched out on her belly alongside Sakaki and Yomi. In fact, her only friends that seemed to be missing were Kaori and…

"Aw, no…" Osaka stood. "They wouldn't leave it up to…!"

* * *

"Sandra, forget it!" Kaori crossed her arms adamantly. "You're absolutely _not _going to add oregano!"

"Aww, come on!" Sandra protested, trying to get around her to the spice cabinet, "Half the fun of cooking is improvising!"

"Yes, but when _you _improvise, we end up ordering Chinese!"

"Oh, that's just cold," the faux American said in mock-dejection, hanging her head over the sizzling pan, "You're gonna hurt someone's feelings if you keep talking like that."

"Just as long as we don't starve," Kaori couldn't help but smile. "I think I can forgive myself for crushing your creative impulses, there."

"What about vanilla extract?"

"Okay, _now _you're just being difficult."

"You know, there's cooking brandy up there, too…" at Kaori's scathing look, she chuckled and shook her head. "Okay, sorry. Brandy doesn't help with many dishes anyway… trust me."

"Huh…" sensing that the threat was past, Kaori moved away from the spice cupboard and sat down by a window, overlooking the water and the distant forms of their friends. "I shudder to think what you've tried it with."

Sandra considered going for the oregano, but decided not to break Kaori's trust. "Thanks for coming up and keeping me company, by the way."

"Well _someone_ had to watch you…" Kaori shrugged. "And besides, I was starting to feel like a fifth wheel anyway."

"What? Why?"

"Oh, it's like you said. They're complete without us. Before I just wanted to be close to Sakaki, but now…" she sighed. "Y'know? I mean, they're great people, and they're trying to make me feel included, but…"

"Yeah, I get what you're saying," Sandra agreed, feeling herself physically yearn towards the oregano. A little wouldn't hurt, right? Just a little? "You know, we should start our own clique. I mean, if you'll have me."

Kaori smiled. "Hmm, not a bad idea. We could get Chihiro, too."

"Who?" Sandra asked blankly.

"And maybe some'a the guys…"

"Maybe," Sandra nodded doubtfully. "Y'know… apart from this lot though, everyone else seems to think I'm… I dunno, they think I'm weird. I'd probably scare people off."

Kaori shook her head. "I don't think so. I mean, people will understand if you act a little odd, since you're from so far away."

Snicker. "You can say that again."

"And, well, you're a little eccentric, but you're not nearly as weird as Osaka. That girl is _not of this world_."

At this, Sandra burst out laughing. When Kaori looked at her oddly, she waved her friend off with a mirthful, "I'm sorry, the irony just got to me… I'll have to tell you about it sometime…"

"Wait a second, not of this…" Kaori's eyes grew to the size of saucers. She remembered seeing Sandra at the aquarium, her heart-shaped face lit only by the water's faint bluish light, eyes seeming to gleam copper in the dim light. It explained so much: her irrational fear of Tadakichi, the bizarre gaps in her social skills, her instant connection to Sakaki, the presence of a needle-ray during their escape and a dozen other things. "You're not…!"

"Aw, crap. I shoulda kept my stupid mouth shut."

"You're one of the… that came with the…?"

Sandra didn't like where this was going. "Listen, Kaori, I wasn't…" But her friend had already left. She probably just needed a moment… finding out that her close friend was a space alien was probably quite a mind-bender, but Sandra couldn't fight down the horrible, tremulous feeling that Kaori hated her now. Incidentally, now there was nothing keeping her from adding as much oregano as she wanted, but the idea had somehow lost its appeal.

* * *

"I don't see what you're so upset about," Yomi said, flipping a page of her book. It had _just_ been getting good, too. "I can see why she wouldn't want people to know."

"Yeah, but--!" Kaori stalked back and forth in front of her on the sand, periodically blocking her view of their friends in the water. "I mean, she was my friend! And—holy cow. She's a bloody _alien_ and we never knew!"

"Sakaki probably did," Yomi pointed out.

"And not just any bloody alien, but an Xian! The people who invaded us with King Ghidora, nearly destroyed the world and _kidnapped Ms. Sakaki!_ She's one of them!"

"While you're at it, why don't you blame me for what Japan did in Manchuria? It would make about as much sense."

"I'm wigging out, here! I thought… I thought she…"

"Well, if you're reacting this way, I can understand why she didn't tell you," Yomi said sharply. "And might I add that you aren't being a very good friend to her by telling me just as soon as you find out!"

Kaori was stung. She knew that the Bespectacled One spoke the truth, but it wasn't easy to back out of something like this. "Well, what am I gonna do now?"

"I assume you'll go back and apologize," Yomi flipped another page. How she could read and converse at the same time was beyond Kaori. "If I know her, she probably thinks you hate her now, and it would be remarkably pig-headed of you if you did."

"You're merciless!"

"I just don't suffer fools well."

"That's funny. You get enough practice…"

* * *

Tomo emerged onto the roof, panting for breath. The wildcat high school girl had finally run out of energy, at least for a little while; a few minutes to recharge and she'd be pestering Yomi again in no time. Ahh, these summer home visits were great! Not as exciting as piloting the most powerful mobile weapons platform ever built, but much more rewarding in its way…

Unfortunately, it looked like she didn't have the roof to herself. Osaka lay on the shingles near the edge, hanging an arm over the side and holding a folded magazine in the other. She looked as though there were a piano resting on her back.

"Oh, hey," Tomo greeted.

"Yo," Osaka glanced up at her.

"Something wrong?" Tomo sat on the edge of the roof next to her, feet dangling over the patio. "You look beat."

"Not wrong," Osaka handed the magazine over. "Just really freaky."

Tomo glanced at the article disinterestedly… then blinked and looked closer. It detailed an expedition to Birth Island, and how the explorers had found a small corpse on that desolate, stony beach, burnt past recognition and irradiated beyond DNA testing. In fact, the only clue to its identity was that, in the charred remains of one of its pockets, it carried an extremely nice letter-opener…

"Ho'shit!" Tomo jumped back from the page physically. "That's-!"

"No scars," Osaka said softly, in eerie singsong, "Not a mark, 'cause I'm brand new."

"What?"

"Ah feel bad for her. Lived 'er whole pointless life an' when she managed to count for somethin' it killed her. An' then I came…"

"Wh- huh? Osaka, no! It's you! I- I mean, she's you! You're—oh, shit!"

"Feel like a body-snatcher, but it's new, too… why d'ya guess I have a belly-button, then, if I wasn't born?"

"Maybe the god of thunder had an extra one," Tomo said dismissively. "Listen… this…? This means nothing!" She tore the magazine in half and threw it over the patio. In the distance, they heard Chiyo go "Ack!"

"Hey, I wasn't done with…"

"Listen to me, Osaka. Please!" Tomo dropped to one knee alongside her friend and grabbed a handful of her collar. "You. Are. You. You're the same ol' Osaka, got it? We'd know. We'd know if you were replaced by a body-snatcher or something, even if you acted the same, okay?"

"I just… I can't seem to remember… I was thinkin' about it, 'bout the egg an' everything, an' my head got all jumbled and…" Osaka looked down. "There's something I gotta remember. It's, it's how I know if I'm real or not…"

"Come on, can't you trust me?"

"I dunno. When people trust you…"

"C'mon, you said yourself you feel safe around me. Just once, I'm askin', just once. Can't you just believe me that you're really you? We'd know… _I'd _know." Osaka looked up at her for a long few seconds, then turned away to watch the sun set over the trees. "By the way, Osaka, you're looking a little tense."

Uh-oh. All of the girls knew the story of what happened when Tomo offered to demonstrate her magic fingers in a massage for Kagura: the first blow completely missed her back, striking her temple instead and making them both do an amusing little jig from pain. Tomo had tried it once since and gotten off to a much better start… but then digging her fingers into the athlete's magnificent _latissimus dorsi_ made her so mad with jealousy that she resorted to thwacking her patient in the head again anyway.

But there was little risk of that this time around. The magic fingers plunged into Osaka's back and she gasped, realizing that by the end of this her back would be one big mass of bruises and it'd be totally worth it. The wildcat masseur paused after realizing this herself, but a whispered, "Don't stop, Tomo," made her continue.

Unknown to either, Kagura had just been about to crest the roof herself, but she happened to overhear that last and decided that perhaps the roof wasn't the best place to enjoy an ice-cream bar just then. _I knew it!_ she thought to herself, knowing nothing of the sort and knowing it. Still, after enduring her insinuations for so long, it'd be nice to give Osaka a taste of her own medicine.

"I… I still don' remember what it was…" Osaka sighed, "But… I think you're right…"

"As usual!" Tomo agreed happily.

"Y'know… you've always been there for me, Tomo…" she paused to enjoy the at-long-last loosening in her neck. "Since forever. You helped me when I found that stupid egg an' thought I was goin' crazy, when I was on my way to die, after Chiyo was… was…" she sagged back into Tomo and rested her head on the taller girl's shoulder. "I'm sorry for botherin' ya with all this."

"Oh, well," Tomo said uncomfortably, shifting her weight. "It's… nothing."

"Don't say that!" Osaka protested, taking her hand. "What ya did for me… I don't know what I woulda done without ya, an' it means the world to me. You're the best comrade I coulda ever asked for." She clutched Tomo's hand a little harder. "I… I hear Yomi an' the others callin' you stupid an' selfish all the time, an' I think… please, Tomo, don' let it seep into ya like it did me. You're really a good person!"

This whole spiel caught Tomo completely flat-footed. Speechless, she laid her other hand over Osaka's, holding her lightly. "Er. Thanks."

The Anti-Bonkuras sat watching the sun set for a long while, silent as the world was washed crimson around them. "D'ya think we'll make it?" Osaka finally asked. "Out in the real world?"

"Oh, sure! We've got to! We're the plucky heroines!"

* * *

Long after the girls had finally gone to bed, Mr. Mihama sat in the main room, sprawled over the couch with his arms hooked over he back, watching _The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms_ on the small television and lost in thought. His wife had urged him to take this as a vacation before he plunged back into the sordid business of rooting out what remained of SSS9, but it kept creeping back into his mind at inopportune times, such as 4 AM in this case.

Unbelievable that the organization he had helped found would go so wrong. Unbelievable that its master, once Yasuhiro's friend, would turn his will so ardently towards destroying him. Unbelievable that anyone—_anyone_—had stooped so low as to drag poor Chiyo-chan into this. And yet… at least she'd come out of it all right. He could still be glad for that.

Just as that thought occurred to him, Chiyo padded into the room. That was one lasting effect the incident had had on her; occasional spells of insomnia. As he watched her, she wandered over to one of the small potted plants on the windowsill and slid it three inches to its right.

"Bad Feng Shui?" he asked.

"It's happier there," Chiyo replied in a vague, sleep-deprived sort of way. "What's that you're watching?"

"Ah, some American monster movie. You can tell that they don't know how it goes." He was curious to see how she would act towards him; he'd been away most of the time since they'd returned from their disastrous tour, and worried that she'd be even angrier and angstier than before. After all, she had a right to be mad—so far he'd managed to inadvertently put her and all of her friends in direct peril at least twice.

Chiyo walked up and glanced at the screen, then curled up on the couch in his arm. Yasuhiro chuckled inwardly. _I don't deserve a kid like her.

* * *

_

She wasn't the only one having trouble sleeping. Sandra snapped awake much as she had several nights in the past, heart pattering. The same stupid dream… ever since the incident with the fairy women and the vampire bug of death, she'd learned not to take dreams lightly, but she really hoped that this one didn't count.

"Wha's wrong?" Kaori asked foggily from a few feet to her left. She'd recovered surprisingly quickly from the space-alien revelation, and now she and Sandra planned to move forward in their clique-making venture. "You okay?"

"Nothing, don't worry," Sandra said fondly, "Go back to sleep."

Sandra clutched her plush dragon and wished for the real creature it represented, thinking back over the dream she'd just had. A ten-headed golden dragon, not a menace, but there to protect her. Like Ghidora but so much greater… a guardian of not just Earth but humanity as a whole, Earthman and Xian alike. It was the being that the Space Demon should have become.

On its own, the dream wouldn't have bothered her. But she had to wonder… if such a creature was supposed to exist, what in the world was it supposed to guard them _from_?

* * *

In the arctic plains of Siberia, a colossal form rested. Its space-titanium armor and golden scales once glowed brilliantly in the wintry sunlight, but the months had not been kind to its luster. By some miracle, it had not been found yet; the remnants of its fantastic alien technology had allowed it to crash down without being detected by the Earthmen's radar, and to date, it and the Hermit had found peace and solitude on this remote plain.

The Hermit dwelt in a rudimentary shelter leaning against its side, though he now sat outside, wrapped in layer after layer of coats and cloaks, roasting a rabbit he'd caught over a weakening fire. Long silver hair flowed down his back and hung about his sharp, aristocratic face. His complexion was so pale now that it would be easy to mistake its faint bluish tinge for the onset of hypothermia, though it was really his natural cast.

"Oh, how the Prince has fallen," he said with bitter humor, each word coming as a white cloud through his cracked lips. "It's not a bad life, though." And in truth, his subordinates would hopefully be along to rescue him any week now…

A shadow fell over the Hermit as he started to eat, and he looked up to behold three suited men. They stood at attention, unbothered by the frigid wind that howled over the plains and made him shiver even through his coverings. Before he could say anything to greet them, the leader said something in Russian.

"I'm sorry, I don't understand," the Hermit replied in Japanese. It was the only Earth language that he knew.

"We require the Fallen Guardian," the suit said.

"What, you mean Ghidora here? Do you know who you're talking to? I'm royalty, buddy, and this creature is mine. I'll consider it if you're more polite. Who's asking for it?" The suited man removed his sunglasses, revealing not the dark eyes of a Earthman or the golden of an Xian, but… "Oh… oh, _hell_," Prince Xolarus gasped, standing. "Y-you!"

**Finis**

(A/N: Resolution? Pah! Who needs it? As always, final comments will be appreciated.)


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